Mark's Web Site: A quiet place with just a bit of pretension.

I've just returned from a work day in Vermont. My Men's Group will go there in August for a four-day quest retreat and some of the sites needed tending to. It became very apparent to me this morning how important place is in my spiritual development. I awoke this morning before the sun had breached the ridgeline that defines the little valley we were in. I took short walk into a nearby meadow and sat quietly while the forest woke up around me. There is nothing so peaceful and refreshing than listening to the birdsong of a deep forest where no human sounds are present.

I relish my visits to Vermont. Yet, is it the place I want to wake up to everyday? Is it the place I need to be in order to fulfill my call to service? So often a place finds me where the experience is so special that it seems like a call to make the relationship permanent. But if I made the place my home, the experience would become something else.

My work seems to be in the city. I have a passion for bringing some joy and hope into the lives of young people who are struggling with their circumstances. It is important for us to come together as people who acknowledge that all we need to live good lives is each other. Regardless of what we contrive to differentiate ourselves, to elevate one above another, to achieve success by another's defeat, we must acknowledge that we need each other. This work lives everywhere, and its greatest need is in the city.

Yet my place for renewal is Vermont. Although I embrace the communities I serve, I am always reminded of this need for wildness and solitude.