The new season of Spring has arrived in New Zealand and life is singing in all her splendour. It is such a wonderful time to just wander in the beauty of it all and be wowed with this new awakening.
There’s freedom on the shore
to search the weed
the wood drifts
the empty shell.
Hope and desire may rest there,
linger,
thoughts may shift
with sand grains
sifted by waves and wind
stirring and shaping
another beginning.Patricia Grace, From the Centre: A Writer’s Life, Penguin Books, 2021
The poem is about clearing a space, opening the heart, and taking a breath which allows the soul to show up. We are invited to saturate ourselves in wonder and delight just for the sheer joy it brings.
“To be able to really listen, to hear, and to be totallypresent is such an underrated part of human evolution. It can be a super power.“
Dr Hinemoa Elder, Aroha: Maori Wisdom for a Contented Life Lived in Harmony with Our Planet, Penguin Books, 2021
My experience as a spiritual director has convinced me that beauty awakens us to a deeper sense of ourselves and our strength of agency; beauty surrounds us in sheer wonder and delight and increases our capacity for hope and healing.
God pulsates at the very heart of creation and is uniquely present in situations where new life, growth, goodness, gratitude and beauty break through in our fractured world.
How do I/we create beauty in a way that will sustain us as we engage the social issues which impact us? How might we re-image beauty in a world where we are bombarded by the media with manufactured displays of beauty? In what ways do we nurture our imaginations in order to create alternatives?
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.
As we in the northern hemisphere settle into winter and the coming frigid days, I am digging deep to remember the beauty evident in this season as well. I take heart in your line: “God pulsates at the very heart of creation”
Having just completed Pathway 1 of Thresholds of Transformation, this really resonates with me today. Thank you, Christina!
Christina, you have just stirred a very fond memory in me! Seventeen years ago at this very moment we were in New Zealand for a month — a time that wowed us because of all the natural beauty we experienced and the very welcoming and warm hospitality shared with us from the Northern tip of the North Island to the Southern tip of the South Island. All of it was truly beautiful! What you have written resonates clearly with our experience: “beauty surrounds us in sheer wonder and delight” and we still feel this “wonder and delight” all these years after.
The final queries touched my heart and gently compelled me to seek a logical solution that aligns with my current missions. Despite the challenge of crafting extraordinary creations, I can infuse my daily life with as many positive thoughts as possible. Sometimes I have to concur that my powerful thoughts even can change deadly winter to loving spring as well. Thanks for your sharing, Sister Christina.