The Oates Journal (ISSN: 1098-1446) is a publication of the Wayne E. Oates Institute addressing issues related to spirituality, ethics, and healing from the perspective of pastoral care and counseling.

Psalm 25

Show me your ways, O LORD,
and teach me your paths.

(Book of Common Prayer)

I am tending to our meandering path from the house to the rocks, pruning it to keep it clear and moving any clippings. I pass by the garden, birdbath and flower beds. As the path narrows I watch for beach rose thorns, some blackberries and the small pine forest to the right which houses the sanctuary for Our Lady of the Pines, an old and elegant spruce tree with a jagged gash from a long-ago lightning strike. There are a few little hilly places caused by old roots and an occasional whiff of the wild, a skunk maybe who has made the undergrowth his home. The beach roses provide a balancing sweetness. This path reminds me of a labyrinth, though it is reasonably straight, because it is welcoming for meditation. The opening to the pine grove—the broadest part of the path and flat—is a fine place for Qigong. I can face the east, hear the absorbing and releasing of the waves, and am hidden from the house or any walkers on the road by the rocks. I can ask for guidance easily here, for attentiveness to the path and its wisdom. What can it teach me today, this moment?

Pemaquid Point, Maine, July 2006

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