Bierbeekstraat is a short, narrow street, brick houses lining either side, with only a sidewalk separating the cobbled pavement from the front doors and facades. At one end is a pub full of frenzied soccer fans. Not far from the other end is a bridge over train tracks. I got lost once. If it weren't for the tracks, I may never have found my way back. The tracks acted like a stream in the woods--I knew I shouldn't cross them and that only one direction would lead me back to Bierbeekstraat. A short but intensely sincere prayer helped me pick the right way.
Not far from Bierbeekstraat is a cemetery. If you're far from home and suffocatingly alone, a cemetery can provide instant, sacred companionship. I'll never forget the quiet, familiar solitude of that beautiful place: trees, moss, headstones and peace.
When you're alone with no distractions, you get to know your only company--self. I spent many long hours in prayer, meditation, self-evaluation and self-discovery. To know God, you must know yourself. To know yourself, you must know God. Prayer is fundamentally about self-discovery. By communicating with ominscience, self is revealed. Its blemishes become achingly obvious, but with that clarity comes the power to repair.
Every person has one or more moments of profound significance when he elevates above the mundane to a higher plane. Almost invariably the settings are simple, but they become sacred by virtue of the life-altering experiences had there.
Thoreau had his Walden. Jesus had his 40 days in the desert. Joseph Smith had his Liberty Jail. Siddhārtha had his Bodhi tree. Moses had his Sinai. I have my Bierbeekstraat.
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The musings and mental meanderings of a stranger in a strange land, a hermit in a hovel. The ongoing saga in the wake of my consummated petition to refind Bierbeekstraat and subsequent vow never to get lost again. Sum, ergo cogito.
6 comments:
That's beautiful.
Wow. That's kind. It was a neat time, though hard. I think it's a fitting name to apply to my further reflections. I hope the sobriety of that first entry is neither misleading (as a predictor of future posts), nor too heavy.
Thank you.
By the way, this post is proof positive of what I was saying in the next: I'm at once explicit and vague. It strikes me that this post alludes to a lot, but tells nothing. It says a lot, but reveals little.
What a dichotomous little creature I am.
I like this. I'm glad to read all this. I was about to write to you and beg you to resume bloggishness, so I could partake.
So you are a psychic little creature, too.
Thank you! Sweet, sweet words.
Did you read my original blog??
Nope. But you mentioned to me that you had one, over the summer at your house, and I of course got quickluy distracted, and have been thinking about getting the link, like you offered, ever since.
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