Starting point

A friend of mine is a teacher of special needs students. Most are autistic. Some have physical handicaps. All share the one classroom, and they all need some exercise in the morning. On sunny days, my friend told me, she walks them around the block a few times. On rainy or cold days, she walks them through the school corridors.

The movement is good for the children, at several levels. The fresh air, on sunny days, is good for them and gives them a lift. On indoor days, my friend brightens the walk with stories she tells them as they walk. Some children are capable of understanding a story and some others are not. But they all love to walk. They do not "know" why it is good for them. But they like the feeling they get from it.

We wiser adults often tend to face life problems in more immobile ways. We assume that the mind will find a solution to life's woes that will make us feel better. I have often thought about the search many people take through books to find God. Libraries are wonderful. So are the crowded streets of any city. Sometimes it is good to get up and move.

I have never seen the school where my friend teaches but I picture her with her children, walking and talking with them. The kids breathe in stories and air, love and brightness.

God is good. Sometimes finding God on a given day may seem hard. Perhaps then it is time to move, to take a walk and breathe in deeply this mystery of life in all its beauty.

A woman does for little people what God does for all of us. The children my friend cares for may never be able to articulate why they feel good when the sun is shining or when they hear stories. It does not matter. It is the walking and the telling that is important.

And for us wiser folks, spiritual maturation may entail trusting the God who sends the rain, the clouds, the words of stories--and who walks with us every step of the way.

[Fr. James Stephen Behrens is a monk at Monastery of the Holy Spirit, Conyers, Ga.]

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