Ripe Grapes

Dear Ones,

I had completely forgotten about a folder in the way-back room of my archives that contains a compilation of short reflective essays ... an unpublished book entitled Wandering the Less Worn Path dating pre-2009. 

I stumbled upon it this morning, blew the dust off the cover, and looked inside.

Here is an excerpt from Wandering the Less Worn Path entitled Ripe Grapes written long before any of us had any reason to imagine the isolating conditions that have been created by this Covid-19 pandemic.

Please know that all of you remain in our thoughts and prayers.

Peace be with you,

David

“A man who lives apart from other men is like a ripe grape. And a man who lives in the company of others is a sour grape.” (Abbot Moses – The Wisdom of the Desert)

Why is it that we work so hard at surrounding ourselves with things that synthetically entertain our senses?  Why is it that we are so eager to involve ourselves in activities with others so that precious little of our time is spent alone? 

We’ve been conditioned to think there is something frightful about the idea of being still and alone – that it’s unnatural and anti-social to withdraw into silence. And we are afraid to disengage long enough to meet our selves in the presence of God in an atmosphere that reveals the honest contents of our hearts, contents that develop and grow into motivating desires and ambitions.

Simply being alone for a period of time is no guarantee that one will discover solitude and meet with God. There must also be a certain intensity of intention. Simply being alone to discourse with one’s self on matters of personal interest is nothing more than meeting in the board room of one’s own corporate self to discuss personal business plans. 

Discovering, developing, and entering into solitude is, in itself, an admission that there is no solace in the material things of this world. It is an admission that the quality of our being is still yet unformed and needing to mature like the natural elements in a grape that form into sugar when a grape has had time to ripen on the vine.

We need to guard against the way the world’s noise and our active engagement with it tend to deflect us from the deeper realities of life. The noise of the world and the din of our own living can easily deaden our souls and subdue our hearts. 

It is important, too, to realize that the desire for solitude isn’t simply an effort to flee from the world. 

This would lessen the importance of solitude. It is more an attempt to run toward God, to know God and our selves better, and to hear God’s voice in the midst of the din of the world. Equally, we are not, as some think, shirking our responsibilities to humanity by refusing to personally engage in every conflict that presents itself.

Solitude, as said by Thomas Merton, helps us to “recuperate spiritual powers that may have been gravely damaged by the noise and rush of a pressurized existence.”

We simply need to discover the value of being alone with our selves and with God. Solitude counters modern pressurized living and arrests its effects upon our lives.

There has never been a time in the history of humankind like the one we are living in. Life in this all-too-real world is becoming more frenzied by the day. If we allow it, this modern frenzy will pull us apart at our seams and destroy the very genuine fabric of our interior lives.