So Simple

", I found myself one morning in rapt conversation with the monastery hermit/plumber who had come by to thaw out the frozen shower drain in the barnroom apartment assigned to me for the week. It was December 10, five years to the day from the last conversation I would ever have with him. We stood there in the monastery barnyard—I remember he had one blue boot on and one orange boot—and for more than an hour we talked, the words flooding forth from some unknown depth in our souls. Of the torrents of words and feeling that passed between us, I can remember only one sentence—when he suddenly took both my hands in his and said,

“It’s all so simple, so very simple…” But what remains with me vividly to this day is my recollection of a circle of light that shone out from Rafe and enfolded us both, and the deep sense of comfort and familiarity between us, as if we had somehow always known each other and were merely resuming a conversation that had gone on from eternity."

-- Cynthia Bourgeault, Love is stronger than Death