Time to listen

Maple Tree leaves - Loretto motherhouse, Kentucky

Walk quietly and look at the work of the trees beside you and above you. A few moments of silence are good to have.  Sometimes you come to the place where your joy comes from deep within you and you want to say "Oh." Saying "Oh" in the silence of the place you are in.

Thomas Merton and the Loretto Community, Kentucky

Fall foliage - Loretto, Kentucky

The Loretto Motherhouse is located on a working farm in Marion County, Kentucky.  The Sisters of Loretto is an American congregation founded in 1812 by Reverend Charles Nerinckx.  The congregation is dedicated to education of youth. The Motherhouse is located on the site of home of Rev. Stephen T. Badin, the first priest ordained in the U.S. Father Badin was ordained in 1793.

Happiness is not a matter of intensity but of balance, order, rhythm and harmony.
                                                                                                                                 -- Thomas Merton

Loretto in Marion County, Kentucky

Mature Oak Tree - Loretto, Marion County, Kentucky 

This Marion County tree has been around for a long time and is still going.  The base of the tree when compared to the nearby picnic tables shows its massive size.  Perhaps this oak impressed Thomas Merton when he visited the Loretto Motherhouse.

The history of the Loretto community in Kentucky includes 128 years of active service.  The Loretto land is a special place.

Loretto Kentucky

Father Stephen Badin - Loretto, Kentucky



Cemetery - Loretto, Kentucky

Father Stephen Theodore Badin provided the land for the present day farm at Loretto to the sisters before he moved to Indiana.  A statue of Father Badin is on the Loretto property.  He was the first Catholic priest ordained in the United States.  

It is commonly said that tree branches without leaves are sad or ugly looking.  But deciduous trees have a time for locking down vital tree elements for life.  And through the hyphae of fungi that coexist with the tree roots activity in the soil goes on.  You can't see this but it is there.  Hurry is a waste.  Buds will come.  Wide green leaves will come.  A tree has features to appreciate without its full presentation of its leaves. The time without buds and green leaves is just as valid as any time of the tree's life. With experience the way of nature comes to the one who takes it in. 



Gingko leaves

Yellow Ginkgo Leaves - Loretto Motherhouse - Marion County, KY

The ginkgo tree is a survivor of a group of ancient plants.  The leaves of the ginkgo tree often have a deep notch in the margin of the leaf.  In the fall the leaves turn from green to a brilliant yellow. Each leaf grows from a long shoot.  The shoots are clustered on side shoots.  Because of the tree structure the leaves of the ginkgo fall all at once.  Complete leaf fall may occur in one to three hours.  The leaves in this photograph began falling after ten in the morning.   The amount on the ground around the tree accumulated in about two hours.

Thin Places - Kentucky

Thin places are places said to be different because the boundary between earth and heaven is thinner at those places.  The Sisters of Loretto live on a working farm in Marion County, Kentucky.  Father Stephen Theodore Badin provided the farm to the sisters before he moved to Indiana.  A statue of Father Badin is on the property.  He was the first Catholic priest ordained in the United States. 

Tree and Birdhouse - Sisters of Loretto - Loretto Motherhouse

Serviceberry tree - Loretto Motherhouse

Yellowwood tree - Loretto Motherhouse

Fall foliage - Loretto Farm

The sisters have planted 73 acres of native grasses and 15,400 trees. The trees provide a corridor that wildlife can use to travel to adjoining habitats in the region. The Knobs region in Kentucky is named for the high places, some of them hundreds of feet high, that are scattered across the region in Marion and Woodford counties.

There is a yellowwood tree, Cladrastis Kentukea, at the Loretto Motherhouse.   For those who appreciate Kentucky the species name of this tree brings a smile to the face.  Yellowwood has a limited range in comparison to most native trees.  Its range is generally Kentucky and portions of states nearby.  The bark of Yellowwood reminds one of the smooth bark of the American beech.

A pipeline has been proposed to run across rural Kentucky including much of Marion County. The proposed pipeline would be part of a system that would transport natural gas liquids from the shale producing areas in Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Ohio to the petrochemical market in the northeast United States, as well as the petrochemical and export complex on the Gulf Coast. Natural gas liquids can include a variety of hydrocarbons, such as ethane, propane, butane, isobutane and pentane. The sisters have refused to let surveyors for the proposed pipeline on their property.

Tom FitzGerald is head of the Kentucky Resources Council. FitzGerald has spoken of the Loretto sisters and their farm land. "It is a precious place. They are a remarkably strong community of women."

Thin places are places where the boundary between earth and heaven is a thinner boundary.

The heart

It has been said that in many languages the word for heart and mind are the same word.  So being mindful is like being "heartful."  And letting the winds of wild places fill you does something good for you.  When you stand on the peak of a mountain you feel the immensity of the land and the reinforcement that the land has been and is a miracle.  And you are a part of the mountain.

The picture of the fossilized animals was taken at the Sisters of Loretto community in Marion County, Kentucky.