Sometimes after being swung high by experiences during a retreat, there’s an unpleasant crash in the other direction by way of reaction.
It’s happened to me today as the day has worn on, and perhaps it’s worth recording just to emphasise that such things happen but are temporary.
It’s just after 20:00 in the UK as I write, and after a public holiday everyone’s thinking about the return to work tomorrow. Turns out I’ve caught a nasty cold that’s got me shivery and achy. I’ve come back to some emails I don’t want to deal with. I have some very difficult situations to face at work this week and life seems to have lost that glorious blush of transcendent colour and is back to the murk. I’m thoroughly fed up.
The trick is (trying to convince myself) to remember that not even at monasteries do people lead lives of great beauty and glowing spirituality all the time. Anyone who thinks they do is romanticising.
We each of us need to find the thread of spirituality in our own personal everyday lives, even through the ugliness. Just little baby steps towards God every day. And sometimes the baby will throw a major tantrum, sit down and scream for a while!
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Its true, conflicts seem to surface in any sort of place. I do still think a sacred type of place can be easier to resolve them in though when they do, that is if its a ‘kind’ place…