Return to Me -

Dean Martin sings a wonderful song in both English and Italian, "Return to Me," the song of a lovelorn Italiano wishing for his girl to return from far away.  I find myself thinking about the charm of returning to a love because you just can't stand being away, and think then about the lighter side of the phrase....  So often we in American culture are encouraged to "don't look back" - "keep on truckin'" - "leave it all behind".  We seem to miss so many opportunities when we do this though.

In returning to Italy and to the lovely town of Piegaro for more than a week or so, I have an opportunity to not "pick up where I left off," to to take relationships to a different level.  I feel I am eating my way through multiple relationships, every breakfast with Maria, lunch or dinner with Lila, and dinner with the Mancarelli family for the first time.  It is a great opportunity to deepen conversations and find out more about others, to know that Carlotta and my daughter Katy are studying for the same field, of the passion the Tietjen family has for their "new" pub, and getting to meet Maria's family.  Returning gives new opportunities for greater knowing.

Returning in a different season was also a great opportunity to see things in a different way, as the cold of winter has taken it's toll on the plants, and within my first week we had snow.  Piegaro is a beautiful little hilltop village, surrounded by mountains and other hills that are taller and it was amazing to see how the snow topped the hills and mountains and the lush green valleys remained lush and green below.  It was truly a new view of God's ever changing beauty, a graphic way of noting the importance of a new point of view when given the opportunity to return.

A microcosm of returning this week was attending the weekly Mass not once, but twice, on Saturday and Sunday.  My Italian is weak at best, but I know the more I relax, the easier it is.  So Saturday was a wash, my new phone rang in church, and it was simply crazy, a total lost cause.  But Sunday, after a wonderful day with friends, a perfect Sabbath, I could relax and truly listen to the sermon, and it was Great!  This is the week of Christian unity and Don Augusto did a marvelous job with the message, for my first Sunday at worship (last week jet lag found me asleep during worship) it was sweet.  A wonderful coincedence of time, a good reminder that it is good to return to things, places and mostly people who touch your heart, so that hearts can sing in new and wonderful ways.

Do you have anything calling upon your heart to return to?
How do you appreciate those things that you keep coming back to that feed your soul?
Just as Jesus' mother Mary seemed to continue to be a presence in his life from birth, to death, to the foundation of the first Christian community, how do you keep your faith and precious relationships open?
How do you listen to the Spirit calling on your heart to know the difference between time to return and time to leave?
What is the most precious thing you have returned to?