Won't you be my neighbor?

Last fall I found some little neighbor kids trampling around the hill (not these sweet nieces and nephews) -when they saw me they ran off until I called them back. I showed them my prayer chapel -they were Jehovah Witnesses... they asked a few questions about the white ribbon and hung soap to keep the silly deer from eating all of my flowers. They said, 'Wow, Miss, you are really nice. We thought you were strange for this (the anti-deer contraptions)... Can we have a rosary?'

The Eastern idea of the erametical (hermit) life has hospitality as the integral center of the 'poustinik's' prayer. One prays in order to be filled with Jesus and ready to spiritually guide and help those sent to him/her. At times one spends hours alone praying -other times one spends hours serving those seeking assistance. The Holy Spirit alone is the guide to discerning the will of the One to Whom one promised his/her heart. So I pray... a lot still... but I'm also called at times to serve in the world... and there are situations (like when no one is donating or buying icons) that one has to leave the hermit life to gather funds for the next stage or journey. God's ways are not our ways -but He surely (certainly) and concretely guides the heart entrusted 100% to Him. Sometimes God brings people to us (like He did all of those years I was an official hermit) and other times He sends us out to preach the Gospel solely with our lives, our work, our love.

At times the teens needed me:

(These young adults I had to answer for on our trip to Lourdes kept me on my feet -I actually enjoyed the flash mob thing they did in the metro -lucky ducks got hermit Aunt Mary as a chaperone):

 Sometimes we had prayer together a little closer to home (Eucharistic procession day when Grandpa actually wears the African outfit I brought back for him):

Then there's the Notre Dame procession:

And just life at home with kids, music, operations and life in general:

And the random 'help' of friends from Church who had hands full from adopted grandchildren:

See, random hermits are not scary... they have a lot of love from Jesus to share in so many ways with anybody and everybody who allows them. 

Sometimes missionaries, hermits, crazy Aunt Mary's :) are called to live and do things that others might not get at first (like nanny jobs)... But I promise you when you see the unique (artistic as Sr. Tatiana called me) life in 65 more years when I die, hopefully this will make sense. 

Thank you, Jesus, for such a wonderful life. 

Let the dance continue.