Presently I don’t feel as if I am in confinement; I am not alone, I am in the company of all of you are reading me. In fact, by living the presence of God in the present moment, He and I are always together. One day, the Oblate that I am, realized that God, in my life, is present in one place only: He is present in what I am living at the moment, in what is and not in what could have been. Confinement today is me choosing to be where I am otherwise I would not be where God invites me to live in his presence. Accordingly, here is a description of how my life is unfolding at this time:

Presently, while watching liturgies on TV, I find I am more attentive and interiorizing more even if I don’t have access to sacramental communion. I give thanks for the services I had been used to receiving and which I was not fully appreciating. I will be so happy when the cleaning woman starts coming back, when I can visit the hairdresser for a haircut, when I will be able to choose my fruit and vegetables myself. But I will appreciate as well the calm silence that presently envelopes me for long hours at a time, the moments of leisurely meditation of the Word without time constraints.

I am reinitiating myself to the cooking of meals and perhaps I will even come to enjoy it – I realize I am dreaming in color; eating out allows me to socialize. As I go for walks in my area I hear birds, I see strangers greeting each other, I see lots of children.


My greatest joy is to have the time to realize my niece’s often repeated request to write our family’s story, because, she says, “When you are no longer with us you will be taking the family memory with you.” It goes without saying that the family values I am striving to record are those of our family heritage; it will be as well the witnessing of the human values born of the gospel and of the faith that the family lived with joy.

Had home confinement never occurred I would never have known all that I was missing!

Louise S.

Pictures:
Sabine van Erp pixabay
Tanvi Malik pixabay