Why "The Gander"?

Why "The Gander"?

Most people are familiar with the mythology of St. Martin's cloak. Less familiar may be the myth of St. Martin's goose. It is told that Martin the priest was wanted as bishop. He didn't want the job, and so hid (here the accounts are fuzzy) in a goose pen, barn, or bush and was revealed by the honking of the goose. A gander is a male goose - much like a drake is a male duck. To "take a gander" means to take a peek, a look. We hope to use this space to take a deeper look at things happening at St. Martin's, and share more thoughts and information with you.

Thursday, September 4, 2014

Another View


Picture copyright Greg A. Hartford at
http://www.acadiamagic.com/
My wife and I bit off more than we could chew.
We set off to enjoy our favorite pastime, a long walk in Acadia National Forest. As a change of pace, we thought we would go from Eagle Lake to a trail in the saddle that separates Eagle Lake from Jordan Pond. Altogether, we walked about seven miles. Our walk turned into a hike.
On the return trip, we left the limpid water of Jordan Pond behind and plunged into the birch forest of the saddle between two hills called the Bubbles.  The trail went uphill in this direction; and, as the day was moving toward dusk, the sun splashed through the saw-edged birch leaves dappling their closely clustered slender white trunks with shimmering light. We were hiking into a canopy of glowing, living light.
I stopped in my tracks. I breathed deeply the cool, green air, my soul swimming in a pool of eternity.  The light, the trees, the rocks invited me to rest and release, to a happy sense that I existed in a marvelous beauty and harmony that far outweighed my worries. 
In the gift of that moment, I could briefly grasp that our world is saturated with God's eternal loving kindness. 
How did I get to that moment?  All we did was turn around and see the path from a different angle and in a different light. 

Being pleasantly weary and in the company of my beloved also helped.
We found ourselves in another view.