July 19, 2021
There is something about life on an island. During my years in the Philippines I was blessed to spend three weeks on an island called Negros Oriental.
It was not an easy journey, it was a journey of just over four hours where I would catch a ferry. On board I would stand at the back of the rocking vessel as it sliced through whitecaps and salt-tinged air and watch as the coast of northern Mindanao faded away. It was always a bit startling to find myself in the middle of the ocean, as the land fades into the distance. From horizon to horizon there was only water.
Then slowly, after many hours at sea, a small tip of land emerged. Upon arrival at the port the ferry maneuvered itself to the dock and then we disembarked and headed our vehicles and for our different destinations.
It took a while for me to get to my destination but on arriving I was there for a while. For the next three weeks, days and nights, my world was contained in a small housing development. It was a special place where my phone didn’t always have a signal, or I just turned it off. The sea breeze cooled down the hot afternoons and there was an assortment of books awaiting me.
I love to lie on the beach and gaze up into a jet black night sky with twinkling stars, or watch the sun go down. It is during these times that I encounter God and the stillness necessary to remember our connection to this big place called Creation. “Be still,” the universe whispers, “Just for a while.”
Days were filled with rides and walks to the beach, sporting my cane, and browsing the wonders God has sent up from the depths of the sea: shells of myriad dimensions, beautifully ground shards of broken glass, limbs of trees dried and twisted during their journey. Evenings meant dinner off the grill or a takeaway pizza. Later there was time for board games with friends and family around dining room table. There was no set time to go to bed or to wake up.
I was away. That’s what I loved the most about island life. All humans desperately need these “away” times: regular and consistent “white space” to sleep and to pray, to sit and to be silent, to listen and spend time with loved ones, to finally to just rest and be at peace. My away escape is an island.
Place matters less than space: whatever we do or where ever we go away, we just need to give our brains, bodies and spirits a break. It is as if we who live a very busy life, even in our retirement, finally wake up to this spiritual truth. We all need to chill out, wind down and find time to go away.
I love to lie on the beach and gaze up into a jet black night sky with twinkling stars, or watch the sun go down. It is during these times that I encounter God and the stillness necessary to remember our connection to this big place called Creation. “Be still,” the universe whispers, “Just for a while.”
There is something about life on an island. As the time goes by I pray that all of us may find our islands, quiet centres in the midst of our far too often crazy lives. There, God may be waiting for us, just as God waits for me.
Fr Donald Kill began his missionary work in the Philippines in 1972. He is now retired in Bristol, England.
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