The Spiritual Blink

However you might view yourself, I know that I am no saint. It’s more likely that I am a cranky old man with some very eccentric habits and ideas. It’s been said (by me, among others) that I would be best off if I lived somewhere off in the country or on a remote island. Who am I to argue?

Life often feels to be excessive and overwhelming in the world of humans. I am not looking for humans. I am looking for the spiritual blink.

Speaking with saints I have known and reading about other saints, even they have days when they feel that life is too much for them. They feel as if the weight of life’s demands are crushing their souls. The world is overwhelming. Saints, like us, feel as though their spiritual and physical batteries are being depleted. The world is too loud, too noisy and, worst of all, everybody in the world is asking more of them than they can possibly give back.

That is when, like saints, we may discover we’ve received the spiritual blink. That something inexplicable that seemingly comes from nowhere, at least nowhere we can describe. It’s not like sitting under Newton’s apple tree. We don’t know the source of the spiritual apple that hit our heads. We only know we’ve been struck.

What we know is that the spiritual blink gives us a respite from ourselves and the rest of the world. In a flash we are spiritually removed from the crashing, crushing madness of the physical world. Imagine receiving a reprieve from the constant busyness of our lives. We ask for nothing. We are given everything.