A word about the title for this blog. Some of you will recognize this phrase from T.S. Eliot's, "The Dry Salvages", one of the Four Quartets. The phrase is from a line that follows a passage about the difference between saints and the rest of us. Eliot writes that, "...to apprehend / The point of intersection of the timeless / With time, is an occupation for the saint." He then goes on to say:
For most of us, there is only the unattended
Moment, the moment in and out of time,
The distraction fit, lost in a shaft of sunlight,
The wild thyme unseen, or the winter lightening
Or the waterfall, or music heard so deeply
That it is not heard at all, but you are the music
While the music lasts. These are only hints and guesses,
Hints followed by guesses; and the rest
Is prayer, observance, discipline, thought and action.
The hint half guessed, the gift half understood, is Incarna-
tion.
I'm not a saint. But I'm fortunate enough to have an occupation where I can focus on what Eliot calls "the rest" - prayer, observance, discipline, thought and action. My hope is that out of all of this you and I might be able to experience a few more of those "hint[s] half guessed" or "gift[s] half understood."