Moving Around the Center
The mobile hanging in front of me is moving constantly—sometimes gently and slowly, sometimes wildly. The wind blowing through the window is determining the degree and direction of the movement. It seems that no matter what the movement is, the mobile tends toward its centered position. Only when the air is not moving is it still, stable. However, it will be true to its nature and move with the next hint of a breeze.
I can become mesmerized by a mobile. It fixes my attention as it moves and yet seeks its center point of quiet, non-movement, stability. This dynamic equilibrium prevents the mobile from becoming static and rigid, thus losing the qualities of a mobile. Rather, with the aid of a breeze, it seeks a tentative and momentary balance, ready to move as directed. Each branch of the mobile has a center point around which its arms and the rest of the mobile turn—all tending for dynamic equilibrium of the whole.
Mobiles can parallel movements in our lives. I’m nudged to ask questions:
- What is the main center point of my life?
- What makes it so?
- What are other and less prominent centers around which my hopes, visions and actions revolve?
- How do these centers integrate my life—my relationships with God, myself, other people, all creation?
Through my current reflection the center point of God’s vision for all creation and all of history—past, present and future—emerges. It calls me to alertness and choices that promote this vision within and outside myself, consciously and through developed habits. For instance, a line in St. Benedict’s Rule, chapter 53, urges me to “treat all people as Christ.” This statement helps me to be present with Christ’s attention and care as I listen to people and situations, the word in scripture and other texts such as visual, musical and moving art, and the discerning voices in my heart. I remember that Christ can be revealed in pleasant and intimate presence and, also in messy, painful and challenging situations. Christ experienced a myriad of events, feelings, and reactions. He continues to do so in our world today. Looking for Christ in all realities helps me to extend inclusive arms to whatever is going on, to expand my heart in hospitality and acting for God’s vision, and to repeatedly return to my center point in reflection and prayer.
My mobile is still slowly moving. I closed the window. The wind has become too strong and endangers the mobile’s arms; they could become tangled. It’s time for quiet. It’s time to review my center point and what it calls me to. I trust that the mobile will continue to move and seek the stability of its center. I trust that life events will continue to move me in various directions and return me to my center.
Mary Reuter, OSB
Photo by Karolina Grabowska on Pexels