The Upper Midwest Spiritual Exercises were just held in early May in New Ulm, Minnesota. In the Saturday sessions we heard about how in the law of existence in charity we find our authentic selves and the importance of unity and belonging. We were given the opportunity for silence following the sessions and invited to do a work. I relocated to the church for this time, and in reflecting on the address and on recent School of Community discussions, I asked myself some questions: What does it mean to do the work? Assignments? Make the lesson my own? Am I changed? What understanding have I gained? What are the signs? What does it mean to be my authentic self, to complete myself?

While pondering these questions, a woman began to tend to the flowers in the church and I wondered, if everything is sign, as we have studied in School of Community, what sign does this woman arranging flowers represent? She then began working on the grouping most prominent in front of me. As you can see in the photo, there are yellow and pink flowers surrounded by greenery and just left of center, there is a very unusual, spikey-green and yellow-topped plant. Weird and funky and strange. In that moment the flower-tender took this specific plant away, presumably to give it some water. Interestingly, the whole arrangement then became lifeless, flat, and a little sad. I was surprised by this. When the woman returned the plant to its place in the arrangement, it became alive and more attractive again.

Then she began to prune away wilted leaves and to tweak the way some of the living branches and leaves in the arrangement were tangled up or leaning in some odd direction only apparent to her. I understood this as the sign of the Mystery educating us and helping us be our authentic complete selves little by little with a nudge here and a tweak there. “How, little by little, we are transformed.”

In pondering this, it occurred to me that this is the sign of what being our authentic, complete selves does for belonging. Even in my weirdness, our strangeness and funkiness, unity and belonging bring a specific beauty to the whole.

Later that evening, we had a conversation where we could make some observations or ask some questions. Fr. Stefano said it was too early for us to have made judgements, but that we could share some of the lessons that moved us or made us wonder. One man asked a question about a comment made about how even our small acts participate in the redemption of the world. He noted he was involved in many things – he deemed them little – but that were interesting to him, and he wondered about the value of them being done by him, how did this have anything to do with the redemption of the world? He said he thought they could be completed by anyone. I immediately understood, as with the spiky flower in the arrangement, this was not the case.

Peg, Rochester, Minnesota