One day during the summer, I sat in my car in the ferry line, dispirited for a reason I no longer remember. It was a beautiful day, blue sky peering through fog, and gulls. I walked up the dock to the Mermaid Market, and paused in the Seaside Chapel. Shells, stones, and books adorn a shelf where an altar would be, and it is a sweet space, meant for spiritual respite more than for a specific religious purpose.
As I browsed the books, I pondered what I wished I might find: perhaps comics that depicted the Lives of the Saints - St. Hildegard of Bingen for instance, or St. Thérèse of Liseaux. My imagination sparked. Wouldn’t it be fun to create zines of this saint or that, and leave them on the altar-shelf for anyone to find and take if they wished? Maybe, someday.
Instead, I drove onto the ferry, and then called my friend Cynthia. Perhaps she was free this morning, and I could drop by after my shopping. She was, and in our conversation, in which I shared my woes, we agreed that we’d make time to pray the rosary (which we do in Spanish) and to create art. We did both. My painting is below.
But before that, on the ferry, I left the car to look out at the Sound. I knelt on something like an altar rail, and sunlight flashed and sparkled on the water. The fog had pulled back quite a distance. And my soul was filled.
Summer has its own rhythm and flow, but Autumn is a resurgence. In the coming weeks I hope to share here some of those strange and beautiful holy moments that I have been blessed to encounter these past months. Also: music (I have been steadily composing).
Stay tuned!
Crossing
Having left with out praying
I took morning prayer
kneeling on the ferry rail
And see! the blaze on the waters
Mt. Tahoma offers benediction
Fog rearranges,
and we become a melody
for each other
Even the metal celebrates,
one rod over another,
forming a crucifix
for those who, anywhere,
seek him
such as me
on the ferry
