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Fr. Carl J. Arico
Rocks by the Sea
While walking along a sea wall path, I was amazed to see a
gentleman working among the rocks creating what I now know as ‘rock
sculptures’. I watched for 20 minutes in amazement. He came over to
me and said, “Would you like to try it? It is very simple.” Always open
to new experiences, I took a stone and attempted to balance it. He
began to laugh and said to me, “You are forcing the rock to do what you
want it to do. Allow it to find its own center.” I tried once again. It was
not a matter of finding the flattest part and laying it on another rock. It
was to allow the center of the rock find its own position, so to speak. My
friends said I looked like a Zen master kneeling by the wall, cupping the
stone with both hands with a look of intense attention and intention.
At some point, the rock seemed to move itself into position and there
it was – a seven-inch rock standing on its own. It was in harmony with
the other rock. As I stepped back, I expected the ocean breeze to blow it
over, but it just stood there. The gentleman explained to me that stones
have a center of gravity and when you connect with it, it finds balance
and harmony. All I know is the next day I passed the wall and my stone
was still standing.
We all have a center of gravity and when we connect with it, one
finds balance and harmony. Is this not what Centering Prayer is about –
consenting to God’s presence and action in our lives?
Balance and harmony. Interesting concepts. Hard to define but easy
to recognize when they are not present in one’s life.
Recently an email companion sent this to me: “Harmony exists when
a perfect balance is arrived between one’s active and one’s passive life,
as evident when one’s interior silence cultivated in one’s passive life
becomes manifested fully within one’s active life.”
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CONTEMPLATIVE OUTREACH NEWS
DECEMBER 2010