A few weeks ago a friend and I set out to go to Ashburton to buy a new budgie, a companion for my other budgie, Sunshine. The day was glorious, the kind of day that we often get after a storm. As we neared the main road we remarked on how the traffic was just ‘inching along’ on the motorway. Perhaps there had been an accident.
Suddenly, WOW, the Southern Alps came into view, totally awesome, pure white and sparkling with the first snow fall of the season. With the traffic slowing to a standstill and people getting out of their cars to absorb the wonder before them, the silence was palpable; here, a group of strangers stood together, stilled in a brief moment of time by the utter beauty before us, mesmerised by this magnificent landscape.
I recalled a similar experience, stilled to silence, when I viewed the Canadian Rockies blanketed in snow. Perhaps all the beauty and silence of both countries, situated at the North and South poles of our global village, help to anchor and steady our world.
Thomas Merton writes:
God is present, and his thought is alive and awake in the fullness and depth and breadth of all the silences of the world.1
For that moment in time, travelling to Ashburton, a group of strangers stood together in spontaneous awe, lost in silence and wonder.
Christina Cathro is a New Zealander and a Sister of Our Lady of the Missions (RNDM). She holds an MA in Formative Spirituality from Duquesne University in Pittsburgh and a Doctor of Ministry from the Toronto School of Theology.
Christina is an educator. Besides teaching, her ministry has included being RNDM novice director in New Zealand, and serving as spiritual director, retreat leader, and group facilitator in several countries. She has additionally served on both the RNDM Canadian and New Zealand Leadership Teams.
To all her involvements, Christina brings a passionate sensitivity for beauty and transformation. She carries a strong sense of the Spirit working with, in, and among us, to create a world where all of life is able to flourish.
What a powerful experience, Christina! To have this group of strangers all called to stillness in a serendipitous moment is very moving; how powerful and generous the Universe is when I take time to notice. Thanks for sharing this winter moment in the midst of our summer!!!
Thanks for your story, of beauty and wonder on the road to Ashburton. When you and others experienced “collective awe”, stopped in your tracks by the beauty of creation. It reminds me of G.M. Hopkins declaration that “the world is charged with the grandeur of God.”