On Tuesday I will be returning to my alma mater, Oscott College. It is for the occasion of the College Feast, Our Lady Seat of Wisdom. The tradition, if it is that yet, has been to invite the Top Year (as we once were) back to celebrate with the community the Solemnity of our patron. It's a great day, and I recall writing about it in the Oscotian magazine a while ago. I'm excited to hear that the fourth year will also be at college, so it promises to be an exciting reunion of sorts. I'm only sorry that we cannot all be there (the 'top year', that is) but our turn will come the following month.
It is strange to go back; to return from whence we came. There can be a sense of not wanting to go back, but rather to be concentrating on the path ahead. It's good to question, however, can you really appreciate where you are heading if you do not see from where you have come? I'm not so sure. Nonetheless, I am filled with many thoughts about this journey. Incredibly, but perhaps understandably, I do not miss college. I don't miss the institutional nature of seminary and I do not miss the often times limiting nature of the beast. Friends, on the other hand, I miss incredibly. This is, I think, true of life. It is the people who make the place, not the bricks and mortar and still less the routine. It is the very real interaction of another human being which makes for the joy of life.
When I go back, then I can appreciate where I am going. I'm looking forward to the view of life in the rear-view mirror, as it were.
(I hope you will forgive two pictures in this post.I just couldn't decide between them!)
I think they are both great pictures of Our Lady. I prefer the second one personally. I really enjoyed your post. Keep up the great work.
ReplyDeleteThanks Ariel, for your kind comments. I'm still not sure which is my preferred picture. I love the simplicity of the first but find the second to be more inspiring.
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