A good friend and I recently spent a weekend at the Benedictine monastery in Erie, Pennsylvania. We each had a “hermitage” of our own in the nearby woods; hers was named for St. Scholastica. It’s known among the sisters as “Stilts.”
The first evening, my friend and I talked at “Stilts” until about 10 p.m., then decided to call it a night. I picked up my flashlight and went down the stairs. After about fifteen steps, I had no idea where I was. The woods were dark, and the gravel trail didn’t seem as well marked as it had at dusk. I took a few more steps, and became even more disoriented.
Fortunately, my friend still had her bedroom light on, so back I went to Stilts. The two of us walked out on her balcony. “There,” she said, pointing, “you can see your place from here. You left the porch light on, remember.” “I know,” I said. “I can see it. I just don’t know how to get there.”
We explored all the options we could think of: I could sleep on the couch at Stilts. But it wasn’t built for someone who’s six feet tall. She could walk back with me. But what good would both of us being lost in the woods do? Finally, after about ten minutes, we remembered the Benedictines had left flashlights in both hermitages. My friend had a larger one. We walked outside together, me carrying the big flashlight, her a smaller one. When we got to the first bend in the trail, about ten steps beyond where I’d gone, the way to my hermitage was clear.
The next morning, I counted the steps between the hermitages: fewer than 150. And yet, without a bright light, I was lost. It made me think just how easy it is for us all to get lost when we choose not to follow God’s light… and how much help a friend can be in getting back on the right path.
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A great story with a great message. It is so easy to get lost at night in the woods without a good light–and how true it is in life too. Hope you’ll be sharing more about your retreat in future posts!