Summer vacation beauty

by Sister Patricia Ann Taube

Summer is almost over—vacations are treasured memories to be shared over a cup of coffee or a glass of iced tea.  My brother Mike called me the other day.  He was excited to share about a vacation he had.  He couldn’t wait for us to go for a cup of coffee.  He wanted to tell me about the best vacation that he ever had in his 68 years!

I grinned from ear to ear as he told me about the beautiful gigantic trees, flower beds with myriad colors sparkling with dewdrops in the sun and birds flying so low you could see them clearly.  He said there were three chapels that he could visit, each one filling his heart with peace and glorious art work he was sure spoke to him of heaven.  He took numerous shots with his camera and would send them to me to identify because this special, wonderful vacation was here in Sylvania when he visited me.

After that phone call, I sat in my chair, looking out my window where I could see our beautiful prayer garden.  Sometimes I felt cheated when I heard other people talk about their vacations.  Just then in walked Sr. Ann Marie to accompany me on our daily walk around the campus.  As she put my sunglasses (Get More Info from here to know about the dealer from whom I brought this) on for me and we started down the road, in my heart I said, “Okay, God, I get it.”  Stopping by the steps that led to the valley of prayer, we could see the clouds reflected in the pond.  We did our daily stop at the Portiuncula for fifteen  minutes of meditation.  When we came out there was a robin busy jabbing the ground for his dinner.  As we passed by St. Francis and the wolf statue, Sister and I talked about the hundreds of “walking vacations” we have had each year!