Omaha, Nebraska

After leaving Sydney at midday Monday and arriving in Dallas at midday Monday, I took a connecting flight to Omaha. I had a window seat and gazed out the window as Texas gave way to the plains of Oklahoma which gave way to the wide flat cornfields of Nebraska. I felt a frisson of excitement as I landed in Omaha, with all the good memories of the last two years building an anticipation of an even better season ahead.


I walked around the nearly deserted streets of the Old Market quarter at 6am the next day, something I do to jolt my body into wakefulness - this is daylight, time to get up - even though it's 9pm in Sydney and time to start winding down for sleep.

 I realised as I pondered the cobblestones of the Old Market that I'm not very adventurous. My excitement about coming back to Omaha this year is not its newness but its familiarity. I don't crave travelling to new places. I know this place. I know the rhythm of life on campus. I know and love these people I will live and study with for the next ten weeks.

Omaha feels like my other home, in the way the Chicago and Cooma have before. Indeed the common thread  between these three places is that they have each been communities where I have both felt at home, and been enormously stretched and challenged to grow personally and spiritually. Even now, ten years after my sabbatical in Chicago and twenty years after my gap-year winters in Cooma I can trace how much of the person I am today has been shaped by my time in those places.

So I expect the same here in Omaha, that the cumulative effect of three consecutive summers spent here, along with the Spiritual Exercises and spiritual direction practicum in between will launch me on a trajectory of God's design whose end I cannot yet see.

And so the final year begins!

Comments

  1. Charmaine31 May 2018 at 15:37

    Glad to hear you have arrived safely in Omaha. Enjoy the next 10 weeks.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Unknown31 May 2018 at 17:43

    I feel inspired in following you on both your journey and spiritual path.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Fr Jim McKeon11 June 2018 at 18:54

      Thank you, Andrew. I will be walking the path of St Ignatius indeed.

      Delete
  3. LOU1 June 2018 at 04:24

    Have the most wonderful 10 weeks. It must be both daunting and exhilarating at the same time!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Fr Jim McKeon11 June 2018 at 18:53

      Thank you ! It's more exhilarating than daunting. Having been here before and knowing the routine it's been easily to slide back into the rhythm of life and prayer here.

      Delete
  4. Unknown5 June 2018 at 02:33

    Your journey and the end will be wonderful Jim, for you and the world, because you are so alive to God's nudges. Blessings on the quiet, the study, the friendships and the growth.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Fr Jim McKeon11 June 2018 at 18:53

      Thanks Rachel. God does indeed do lots of nudging here, or at least, I'm noticing it more. Love to all the family

      Delete
  5. Unknown6 June 2018 at 00:34

    Good to hear you arrived safely enjoy your time studying

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Fr Jim McKeon11 June 2018 at 18:52

      Thanks Ann. The study proper begins today. I hope you all and gang at Kincumber are well

      Delete

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