Winter storms and gifts

Forty years ago, on January 1, 1974, I made my first profession of religious vows of poverty, chastity and obedience as a Discalced Carmelite in the small upper chapel at the Monastery of Marylake, south of Little Rock. It was a simple ceremony with only a handful of people present.

The next day I headed out by myself in the snow to drive to San Antonio to take a few philosophy courses at St. Mary's University. The weather the day I left was terrible. I had planned to spend the night with the friars at the Cathedral in Dallas that night, but I got caught in an ice storm that forced me to stay overnight in a Holiday Inn in Hope, Arkansas instead. I had no clue back then that Hope was the home of a future president of the United States. To me it was just a little place on the road where an old girlfriend had been picked up for drunk driving while attempting to visit me at the monastery the year before. But that's another story.

The nicest thing about being stuck in Hope was that the iconic "Trouble with Tribbles" episode from the original Star Trek was showing on television. Despite having watched the original series when it was first on and having watched re-runs almost daily the last year I was in college, I had never seen the tribbles episode and had always wanted to. So even though I was in the middle of nowhere all alone in a winter storm, it felt like a gift to turn on the little television in my lonely room and discover "The Trouble with Tribbles."

May the storms life sends your way this year all contain a surprising gift.