“How often do I give myself an entire day to ‘do nothing’? Never!”
Hawley Almstedt teaches nutrition and exercise science classes in the Department of Health and Human Sciences.
After more than 20 years of working at LMU, I have learned indirectly and intentionally about Ignatian Spirituality, especially in the last year while pursuing the Spiritual Exercises with guidance from Father Randy Roche, S.J. One of the Ignatian concepts I have come to deeply appreciate is that God meets you where you are. Where do you find the most happiness or gratitude in life? Is it with your children? With your students? In service to others? Through the arts, like music, paintings, or theater? For me, it is in nature.
As a professor, I am grateful for the academic calendar, which allows my husband and me to pursue at least one backpacking trip each summer. For the last many years, our labrador retriever, Simone, has joined us on these adventures, much to her delight. This past June, my husband picked out a 3-day hike in the Fishlake National Forest of Utah. Our first day began with 7.5 miles, including 2,400-foot elevation gain, and ended at the small and beautiful “Blue Lake.” Our nearly 8-year-old dog made the 4-hour journey but was clearly sore. (My husband and I are in denial about her age because we want her to live forever.) As we were setting up camp for the night, Simone looked like she was walking on pins and needles during her cautious, slow steps that revealed her tender feet. We were 8 miles from a road, we had heavy backpacks filled with gear, and there was no way we could carry the dog the entire way out. Discussing our options over a tasty, freeze-dried meal, we decided we would spend two nights in this location, hopefully giving Simone enough time to recover so that we could all hike out on our own feet. This turned out to be a blessing in disguise, an invitation to find happiness and foster gratitude.
How often do I give myself an entire day to “do nothing”? Never! Instead, I am always hurrying from one task to another trying to cross things off my “to do” list, so I can feel a sense of accomplishment. But this day, I was free from attachments and spent hours just looking at a lake, watching the water ripple in the breeze, observing flies and insects buzzing around. I thought about what the bugs would be doing if I wasn’t there. I noticed the ebbs and flows of the melting snow finding its way downhill and into the lake. relished the unhurried conversation with my husband discussing our surroundings in nature and contemplating where we might want to hike next year. We spent the whole day like this; how does the time pass so quickly? How did I spend a whole day doing just this, when I could have been writing up that paper with data collected more than a year ago?
Because of our dog’s tender paws, we stayed an extra night at the lake, allowing me to soak in the scenery and appreciate nature more deeply than if we had packed up and moved on after one night. I was also profoundly appreciative of the exquisite cup of coffee my husband had waiting to greet me after a terrible night’s sleep in 30-degree weather where my joints ache no matter how thick the sleeping bag. The warmth and coziness of the coffee almost soothed my bones which seemed to know the night’s temperature even if my skin was warm with protected layers.
In his book, The Jesuit Guide to Almost Everything, James Martin S.J. encourages readers to notice the times in life when you feel the most happiness and gratitude. Then,engage these activities because they are an opportunity to foster Ignatian spirituality and deepen your relationship with God. Our extra day of healing this summer at Blue Lake was certainly an experience of peace, grace, and wonder, an opportunity to find God in all things.