A Cold and Quiet but Fruitful Day

It's almost four in the afternoon and my day here in Orange County is about to come to an end. I drove up here early this morning with Juliet who attends a monthly spiritual direction session hosted by the Center for Spiritual Development. To maximize the time, I set up a couple of appointments and brought stuff I can work on while here including my computer. One appointment fell through but as it turned out I had good lunch fellowship with some of the students undergoing the training at the Center. I spent much of the morning grading the final papers of my Fuller students and checking my Facebook once in a while. At 2 pm, I met up with a potential directee and it was a rich conversation. Looks like we're going to be journeying together starting the new year! At this moment while I'm writing my thoughts, I'm literally freezing (I feel like I'm a "frozen delight" in fact!). It's a quiet afternoon, perfect for a time of reflection. I've been thinking a lot about the future and the new opportunities right before me and I truly sense a different kind of excitement in the air. My work on Henri Nouwen is definitely paying off. I never thought I'd be so immersed into everything Nouwen but I'm loving it. To date, last I checked Facebook, there are over 65 avid Nouwen fans who have signed up to be a part of the Nouwen Legacy Associates (a web page I recently created to connect together folks who read Nouwen). I feel like my circle is ever-widening and that's so thrilling! My borders are getting enlarged as I embarked more and more in this work on Nouwen. I end this day with gratitude in my heart and deep assurance that I'm headed towards the right direction even though there are a lot of things yet unseen. I feel cold but my heart is anything but cold right now. God is warming up my heart as I brace myself for the future. If I may invoke the famous words of Julian of Norwich - "All is well,and all manner of things shall be well." And as the equally famous hymn goes... it is indeed "well with my soul."