My lecture day and a meeting yesterday both included reflection on spiritual freedom.

One reflection time during the lecture day I thought about times- short and fleeting but with a long lasting effect- that were moments of real freedom.

On my retreat, almost two years ago, I sat, unusually for me, still and in silence with nothing going on inside. All I was aware of was the love of God’s presence. In that place, for that hour, nothing else mattered. It was a rare gift.

Walking in a park, I suddenly became aware of how vast and wider our world is. It took my breath away.

Yesterday, listening to a song, I was aware of being invited into a dance. I returned to the lyrics today. The gift of stillness, of resting, was not one I could readily accept today. I tried to recapture the freedom of dancing with God. It alluded me. I was distracted by the trees outside the window, and thoughts inside my head. My eyes drifted back to the lyrics:

“Maybe you don’t need to understand”

Maybe I don’t. Maybe the dance is what it is, a dance where God takes the lead. I am just a dancer. I don’t have to analyse the dance, just join it.

My eyes drifted back to the trees outside the window. Dressed in the bright green and red-purple of new spring leaves they danced in the wind, sometimes fast, with energy, sometimes slow and gentle. Dancing however the wind chose.

Moments of freedom: short lived and fleeting, a gift of love, discovered in stillness and silence. Step on to the dance floor and join God. I cannot always do it. Today I was able.