INTIMATE JOURNEY
November 9, 2002
Rabbi Edward Paul Cohn
Temple Sinai
New Orleans, Louisiana
A lecture on November 7 at Boston College by Cardinal Kasper-started it all!
We left early last Friday morning for Boston and arrived at 2:30 PM. Three wonderful days with Jennifer---taking her shopping, indulging her and filling her with good food, catching up with one another in the atmosphere of ultimate leisure and relaxation-Newberry St., the North End, Capitol Hill, Boston Common ablaze with the colors of fall.
But all good things. . . .
Andrea to the airport, I to Budget for three days alone in Kennebunkport. Her job prevented her joining me---she gave me this treat---retreat, really-as a most generous free will gift.
Alone in a car headed out of Boston (where is the Sumner Tunnel? How do I find 93N to 95N?) The fall sky blue set against not prime but late fall color in trees fanning out an array like a peacock's tail.
Looking for an inn---the Maine Stay---Cottage 3 with fireplace and jacuzzi. In an hour and 10 minutes I had passed through Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and was now in Maine where, as they say, "life is as it should be."
A sense of longing-haunted by Andrea's absence. Guilt. Guilt. Guilt.---Shall I not eat? I didn't. Monday, next morning-early breakfast.
In the car driving all the way South to Ogunquit.
Maine Diner lunch.
Five hours of study, reading, writing-two book reviews, sermons, alumni lecture at Sacred Heart.
Lobster at a favorite restaurant.
Into the late evening--quiet reading--study new prayer book and outline our new service.
Tuesday---up early, breakfast.
Drive to Cape Porpoise--lighthouse.
Study-another book to read and review for Sinai University.
At 4:00, seized with urgent need to say good-bye to Kat this last night's sunset. In the room-dress for the cold.
In the car---low tide---Ocean Avenue-ships, harbor, cove ablaze with undescribable color in the failing sunlight, bathing the trees in deep crimson, orange and golds of every hue and sea birds flying high above, calling the world to evening prayer.
I pulled onto Colony Beach, where the Atlantic joins the harbor at the sea wall.
Sun ready to set and dropping like a fire disc into the purple clouds-above the distant waves. A moment of unforgettable grace and renewal.
Prayer of thanksgiving-incredible joy filled me!
The sky was truly a Tiffany stained glass rainbow.
The sun continues its journey---a sea gull I spot while I stood at the sea wall.
In low tide, it's looking for its dinner and has it now---hopping upon a rock to savor what he's caught. I see he's holding a young, small crab.
The powerful beak affords the struggling crustacean no defense. One, two, three gulps, it is gone-vanished. The bird goes on, in search of a second course.
I sense, my joy is muted now. Sobered---I relive this brief scene of life taking life. And silly if I feel a kinship with that crab and, somehow, see our lives in that fierce but futile duel with death? I am sure not.
We struggle into this world and most of us will do the same in our leaving it. Ultimately we face our fate-alone.
The wind is chilly and the clouds above the darkening waves have changed their configuration. What was wide and long in light is now a narrow wedge. But at its center still, a deep, unyielding, radiating brightness. It serves to dispel my gloom by its reassuring rays, and it imparts a message that God, the Creator, is from end to end. In life and in death we cannot go where God is not. And where God is---all will ultimately be well.
And so, as darkness neared, I felt secure that the Eternal Friend creates us, loves us, wants our best, forgives our foolishness, waits for our attempt to do the right thing, encourages us to choose the right, and one day, soon or late, will welcome our souls back to that Source of all life.
There I stood on that beach-alone, but filled with that sense of companionship which only comes from completely knowing that one is at home---in this world and the next.
Refreshed, renewed, and still reassured by that November sunset, at low tide, on the Coast of the State of Maine, where they say-
Life is as it should be.
Amen.