Pond Life

Today was a perfect autumn day.  It was sunny, warm but not hot.  As I walked the property I was aware how high the grass had grown.  We are blessed to have over 300 acres here in Varroville.  A knowledgeable lady told me the the day Varroville did not exist.  That is understandable given only 150 people live in our locality.  But we do exist.  In fact, there was an article in the Sydney Morning Herald last year claiming we had more graduates per head of population than any other locality in the Sydney metropolitan area.   So, there.

Varro's Pond

The name goes back to 1812 when Robert Townson called the property across the road from us Varroville.  He called it after the Roman writer Marcus Terentius Varro (116BC to 27BC).  This learned man has only one book that has survived intact: De Rusticarum Libri Tres.  No doubt an indispensable guide for the rustic life.  He is a suitable patron for our learned and rustic locality near Sydney, and for this blog.  

So there I was wandering through the high grass this afternoon.  The peace was uninterrupted.  I may have heard the freeway drone or the odd helicopter but I did not notice them.  There was too much beauty immediately in front of me.  

The one word everyone uses to describe this place when they come is "peace".  "This place is so peaceful" people say with wonder.  And so it is.  The truth is, though, that today I was getting away from the chaos in my head which came from the discovery that my email account had just been hacked.  I had lost my address book and all my folders of important mail.

So many concerned people had called that it undermined any work I might have otherwise completed.  Most were pleased I was not stranded at a South Cyprus airport with no passport or money.  Quite a few had scary images of what it all meant for me and them.  And oddly enough, to be honest, I was worried about my passport.  I had applied for a new one and it had not turned up.  Earlier today I had tried to trace its progress through the system but failed.  Another frustration and anxiety.  Then, as it happened, after lunch the postman brought it.  I had to sign for the registered mail.  I will need my passport this year.

So, I went for a walk to clear my head.  It was a chance to calm down and to recall that God was here in this mess.  I took some photos especially near our dams or ponds. These are the ponds of the blog name.  On them were many types of birds and creatures hopping in and out of the water.  Taffy the horse who lives in the paddock by the pond came to be petted. 

Taffy

The thing about ponds is that they are full of life.  Last night a quote from Timothy Radcliffe, OP, inspired me to begin this new blog of life at Varroville besides the pond.  Here it is:

“If we want to build communities in which there is an abundance of life, then we must recognise who and what we are and what it means for us to be alive... Religious communities are like ecological systems. A rare frog will need its own ecosystem if it needs to flourish... If the frog is threatened with extinction, then one must build an environment, with its food and ponds and a climate in which it can grow up.  Carmelite life also requires its own ecosystem, if we are to live fully and preach a word of life, it is not enough to talk about it; we must actively plan and build such Carmelite ecosystems.  A Province will therefore have to develop a plan for the gradual renewal of communities in which the brethren may flourish.  Unless a Province plans the building of such communities, then it dies. A Province with three communities where the brethren flourish in their Carmelite life has a future, with the grace of God.  A Province with twenty communities where we are just surviving may well have none.” (Timothy Radcliffe, Sing a New Song: The Christian Vocation, Dublin 2000, 121-124) [Carmelite meeting of major superiors,Sassone, 2006].

New Priory

I had a good bit to do with the building of the new priory at Varroville.  It was not the first big building project that I saw to completion.  When I was parish priest in Morley we built a new priory, new parish church and parish centre.  I was tired at the end of my term.  But I was privileged to be invited back for another term as parish priest.  I then had the task to make sure that the parish community could grow and come to life in ways that gave life to the buildings.  That is our task now in our new priory.  Buildings are means which enable and support our life.  We need to imagine how we can live as Carmelites here in ways that cause us to flourish and share life with others.