It is important...

 Several year ago, I received a gift from my grown godchild, Paul,  who lives in New York. "A Year With Thomas Merton" has been on my bookshelf , ignored for awhile, but this winter I picked it up again. If there is such a thing as a perfect book, for me, this is the one.

 On the cover is a black and while picture of a stucco wall, a a bare climbing tree hugging it like a child and an uncovered window with a bit of piled snow.. This was the Trappist monk's hermitage. The scene moves me always.

 Inside are daily meditations , glimpses of Merton's spiritual life, that walk me through the seasons. Why such love ? Merton feels my favorite words, I see them on the page. Solitude, quiet, candlelight, shadows on the snow,  hermitage, bare trees, hills, prayer. He usually starts his musings, as I have learned to do when I journal, by describing his surroundings, sky,  trees, dog in the distance, choir singing in the monastery. Painting a picture of the piece of the earth that holds him, that inspires him.

 Today's reading offers these words to my waiting soul:..".deep snow....a marvelous morning... I wrote a poem.......deer tracks in the dark...., and then this:

 "As regards prayer- in the hermitage.To be snowed in is to be reminded that this is a place apart, from which praise goes up to God, and that my honor and responsibility are that praise. This is my joy, my only "importance.". For it is important. To be chosen for this!".

 I, we, have been chosen for this .So I sit at my window, looking out over the green lawn beyond which is the woods thick with bare trees.The turkeys, 5 today, scratch at the soil , a cardinal is wresting seeds from the full feeder. I feel the heat on, warming my cold toes, the cloud cover is grey and threatening. I am at peace with it all, solitude, trees, quiet shadows and praise. It is important.