Wow. Detroit is a city in Michigan as you may know; in fact the largest city in the state.
I’m staying with friends in a downtown-adjacent area called Core City. They bought a house that was in a state of disrepair (though structurally sound) and several years later have created a magical series of spaces that includes not only living quarters and a guest suite but a General Store, Museum, and extensive vegetable, flower and fruit gardens, vine-entwined sitting areas, outdoor sculptural features, Colonial twig trellises, and a pond-in-progress.
We toured the Piet Oudolf Garden on Belle Isle, walked along a couple of waterfronts, and picked sour cherries in a friend of my friends’ backyard. I have visited the Motown Museum, the Detroit Institute of Arts (highlights were James Barnor: Accra/London and Rembrandt’s “Christ.” I have walked around the neighborhood, attended Mass at St. Aloysius, helped weed, made an appearance at an outdoor electronic music (!) event called Soundhenge, and attended a strawberry fest.
But mostly I’ve observed. I’ll return home Tuesday, and begin to prepare for Ireland.
“Before You, all multiplicity becomes one; in You, all that has been scattered is reunited; in Your Love all that has been merey external is made again true and genuine. In Your Love all the diffusion of the day’s chores coems home again to the evening of Your unity, which is eternal life.
This love, which can allow my daily routine to remain routine and still transform it into a home-coming to You, this love only You can give. So what should I say to You now, as I come to lay my everyday routine before You? There is only one thing I can beg for, and that is Your most ordinary and most exalted gift, the grace of Your Love.
Touch my heart with this grace O Lord. When I reach out in joy or in sorrow for the things of this world, grant that through them I may know and love You, their Maker and final home. You who are Love itself, give me the grace of love, give me Yourself, so that all my days may finally empty into the one day of Your eternal Life.”
–Karl Rahner, Encounters with Silence
Beautiful piece about Detroit. I’m adding it to my list of places I want to visit. Thanks for sharing the Karl Rahner piece. Safe travels! Enjoy Ireland, also on my list of places I’d like to visit.
Thank you, Elizabeth Ann! I’ve been lucky enough in Detroit to have A-1 stellar hosts/guides–and you can be sure I’ll be checking in from Ireland! Happy trails, wherever your own travels may take you….