by
                                                                    Jim Eaton

Yesterday a friend brought up the subject of solitude. For those drawn to the inner and outer destinations of  "the big quiet", solitude can seem elusive in the adrenaline rich environment of appointments,deadlines, urban gridlock, and parental responsibility.  If  solitude has become a necessity rather than a romantic notion, you'll enjoy this quote.

              "In every man lies a zone of solitude that no human intimacy can fulfill: and where God encounters us."
                                                                            -Brother Roger of Taize

Lately I find myself drawn to the big empty places, or should I say those places full of silence. Recovering a sense of wonder calls for a return to terrain more intrepid than the destinations where my day planner normally drops me. Although I am aware that God is present in my immediate locale, there is something majestically unsettling in those places of wordless awe where the ancients encountered the purging potency of holy mystery. For this reason, I like to listen for the call of out of the way places and wild corners of the world.

There is truly something alluring in those places out past civilization from which it is often so hard to come back. Perhaps we are called to go there so that we can learn to serve others who are on that last and greatest expedition from which there is no return.