Now, before you stop at the title here or begin to worry, a cell is neither a room at a prison nor a telephone in your pocket. It is the small sleeping area a monk has. Usually this sort of cell has a bed, a small desk, a few books and a few memorabilia. It is the only private place that is totally the monk’s world. It is the place where each day begins and ends. In some ways, it is the monk’s grave or coffin.
It is not morbid to realize, as the liturgy says, that each night we have a “perfect death” and each day a rebirth. That is how we are supposed to live, one day at a time, one complete cycle of life and death, each day. But, it takes time and patience to get to the place where we allow life to happen in just this way, one day at a time. Think of the model prayer, “Give us this day…..” The whole prayer is predicated on “this day”.
Let’s return to our cell. In the Rule of St. Benedict, he tells the monks that when questions come, issues arise, they should return to or stay in their cells and learn what the cell has to teach them. In a lovely devotional, I recently read, this was interpreted for us in every day life as, stay in the moment. Learn from this moment, this here and now, all that it has to offer.Stay there!
Learning to live in the moment means we have to slow down, we have to listen with our hearts, we have to stop being distracted from what is going on around us. Celtic spirituality embraces the natural world around us, Gaia (Mother Earth). It is from her, after all, that we are born and to her we return. This is the world we are part of and that we were created for. What if each moment we were hoping to be surprised by joy, wonder, awe, and curiosity by the world all around us?
I work every day to experience the moment, to let it happen. Am I very good at it? Not really, but I keep at it, keep staying in my cell to learn all I can, to be in the moment. It is easy for me professionally because for some 40 years I have spent countless “moments” with clients as they talked about or experienced their lives. It is different when it is my own life, much more patience is needed and if you are like me, the last person you will be patient with is yourself.
Today, I am rededicating myself to the moment. To see and feel and hear and experience all that this day, these moments have to offer. If you were to join me, I wonder how much worry and fear and dread would leave from the world around us? Stay in your cell, you are completely safe there, you are in the Living God.
TMM