The inner life is like the weather. Or like the Atlantic Ocean. Weather changes for there are storms, rain, bright lightning and loud thunder and snow and hail. Then there is spring, sunshine, summer, grinding heat and fall and winter. Constant flux seems to be the only steady-state in our inner lives. Sometimes the waves can be very large and we get overturned, but we can always swim back to the surface and keep swimming or find a plank to cling to. There is some danger however, for we can also drown. What is worse is if our inner lives are like the Pacific Ocean, a flat surface with no waves at all. We are not called to just float through life, but our inner struggles and how we deal with them seem to be a central aspect of our humanity. When we lose this inner battle, many of those we know also suffer with us. We are made of fire and fire boils, so there is a lot of inner churning in our everyday lives. If we have nothing to look towards, something greater, we just flounder. However if like Peter, when in the storm if we reach out, our hands will be grasp and we will be kept from sinking beneath the waves.
Br. Mark Dohle, OCSO
Holy Spirit Monastery
