About half way through the retreat, now, and everything is going very well. Learning to slow down and reflect more carefully on every little thing. My daily walks are a great way to practice this exercise as I can go at my own pace and stop and marvel at some of the extraordinary things I hear, smell and see along the roads.
Today, I walked to the cliffs of Ta Cenc which are completely wild and abandoned although I was a little alarmed at the sight of a hunter standing quietly above the road with his rifle barrel resting loosely on his forearm and not entirely pointed the other way. I was, as it turned out, on private property. I knew that at the time, the sign at the end of the paved road said "You are entering private property", hence, permission to enter seemed pre-granted by the very words of the sign. Anyway, we both exchanged the usual "bonjou" (pronounced bonjoo) without accost, and I carried on my merry way expecting that he was a tresspasser just as much as I. According to the road signs there is some neolithic temple near Ta Cenc, but as there were no signs highlighting it, it really could have been any number of the piles of rocks which were scattered everywhere along the path to the cliffs. No one to ask and I had no intention of asking the old fellow with the rifle. Another beautiful day, and indeed, the very first day which I am not wearing my sweater or pullover in the House. The air is definitely warming up. There is a Maltese nun here by the name of Sister Paule. In her late seventies, I'd guess, doing a 10 day retreat which she says she does every year. She told me that she lived 30 years in Montreal where she worked with the Little Sisters of the Poor on Beaubien streets where they mostly take care of the elderly. Their founder Jeanne Jugan of France will be cannonized on October 11th this year. Anyway, as it turns out Sister Paule knows ma Tante Alberte Dupuis (the sister of Michele's Mom) who worked at the Beaubien residence in Montreal for 20 years and whom she met when she first arrived in Montreal from Malta in 1964. She said, "We know Malta is small, but so too is the world." She insisted that I not forget to visit her her at their monastery in Malta when Michele arrives. My Tante Alberte, by the way, will be celebrating her 100th birthday this coming July!
