I am tired this morning--this morning, it's a mix of the bad tired of not getting enough sleep in a bed that's not my own mixed with the good tired that comes from getting modules completed and staying up late to have good conversations with a Create in Me friend. So let me try to capture the second full day of the intensive.
I tried to tell myself that it's called an intensive, not a relaxive, but I did feel myself racing from place to place yesterday. We had a morning learning session on Native American spiritual practices. I didn't learn a lot that was brand new, but it was interesting to hear it presented in the form of story and Native flute.
And for those of us reeling from the latest pandemic developments, here's an interesting note: because they were suffering an outbreak of smallpox, the Catawba tribe was not relocated to Georgia with the rest of the South Carolina tribes. Because they were not relocated to Georgia, they were spared from the trauma of the Trail of Tears and from being relocated even further west.
We had two small group sessions, and in between, I enjoyed a post-lunch walk with my spouse's brother. I wasn't expecting him to be on campus because seminary students don't return until later in January, but he had to return to work on his externship--a happy surprise. It was good to catch up. I'm not sure we've ever had one-on-one time. I usually see him when there are gobs of family members around.
The highlight of yesterday was the trip to the Greek Orthodox cathedral:
It was actually 2 cathedrals. We started out in the smaller, older one.
We got an information session about spiritual direction in the Greek Orthodox tradition, and then we went to the new cathedral that was finished in 2015. We got an information session about the tradition of icons and about the specific icons in the cathedral.
This icon of Jesus is in the main dome, seven stories from the floor. The distance from one tip of his nose to the other tip is 15 feet, although it doesn't look that big from the ground.
He is depicted as having no lower body, because the church filled with believers makes up the lower body.
There's a lot of information about the cathedral and all of the icons here. My favorite piece of information that's not included is that the iconographer met with the Sunday school students to find out what specific animals they wanted him to include in his depiction of the creation story:
I was surprised that there weren't any dinosaurs:
Two years ago when I first started this program, I heard about this field trip, and I am so glad that I finally got to go and see for myself. It was one of the parts of the intensive that I was most looking forward to.
We returned to campus for dinner and Compline service. Even though we were all tired after Compline, a group of us came to our on campus ramshackle house and enjoyed some treats and wine--and most of all, some good conversation.
In a few hours, there will be a commissioning service, and I will be a certified spiritual director. Tomorrow I will drive home, and hopefully on Monday we will sell our house in the historic district. Then I will get ready for seminary classes.
Let me focus on staying present to today's delights. Let me not get overwhelmed by what is coming in the rest of January.
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