Pyramid Lake is certainly one of the jewels of the Adirondacks. But this crystal-clear wilderness lake encircled by forested mountains means far more to me than just a pretty place to spend a holiday weekend. This lake is the home of Pyramid Life Center, a spiritual retreat center to which I fled in the summer of 1991, full of anguish over the war my nation had waged against Iraq, angry and sad that my fellow Americans were so excited and proud and happy to go to war. And here, at a retreat with the late Jesuit priest and anti-war activist Daniel Berrigan, I found I was not alone in my feelings of alienation. And more than that, here I found heroes -- social workers, drug counselors, healthcare providers, advocates for the homeless and poor -- whose witness gave me the courage to choose for myself a more authentic way to live. I left a job that required me to be very nice to the very rich just because they were very rich, to learn how to care for the dying as a nursing assistant for Hospice -- a choice that brought me far more joy and spiritual riches than I ever dreamed possible. So yes, my love for Pyramid Life Center runs very deep, indeed.
This love for Pyramid Life Center is why I return each spring and fall to help open and close the center's facilities, and so I am heading up there today to help the center prepare for the coming winter. Each year, my advancing age and continuing pain from old injuries make me a little less able to contribute as energetically as I did in past years, but I am so, so grateful for the health and strength that remain to me, that allow me to do what I can. Pyramid Life Center continues to be a great source of peace and joy to me. May it always remain so, for all who seek healing, happiness, and the holy here in this place of profound natural beauty and loving companionship.
5 comments:
That photo is stunning!
Yes, a stunning photo! Just grabbed me as soon as I saw it. But there is so much more in what you wrote. It's a gift to find a way to contribute in a caring way through your career. And a retreat where you can recharge helps so much. My wife and I were just talking about that today. As for those increasing aches and pains, am I ever with you there! Take care.
Except we didn’t go to war with Iraq in the summer of 1991; Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait on August 2nd, 1990 and Desert Storm began in January 1991.
Thanks for your kind comments, threecollie and Furry. And regarding the war with Iraq, Anonymous, Operation Desert Storm may have been over by the winter of 1991, but the emotions aroused and the political divisions within the U.S. were still very much evident and continuing to ferment during the summer of that same year, with many Americans gloating over the rapid U.S. "victory" that left Saddam Hussein still in power and somewhere around 600,000 innocent civilian Iraqis starving, dead, or grievously wounded, their crops destroyed and their land poisoned by spent uranium and other heavy metals for generations to come.
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