This summer I had the opportunity to walk along a small country road near the town of Bergen in the Netherlands. Along that road I encountered the bust of Mary shown in the image. The shrine commemorates the “Miracle of Bergen” where in 1421 a church was destroyed by a storm and a flood. Holy items of the church were found far away in a wooden chest near the town of Bergen at the site of the current shrine.
What struck me when I watched the shrine was not so much that an image of Mary adorned a country road. Instead, I was struck by the fact that fresh berries were placed on the tree trunk under the shrine. Somebody had recently come by and paid homage to Mary. This shrine was not just a symbol to a distant past; it had value for somebody in the present. That value was symbolized by the fresh berries, and conversely, placing the berries there likely was an experience that kept that value alive.
Ideals need nurturing. Without nurturing, ideals are an abstraction that tend to fade with time. It takes work and commitment to keep our ideals alive and at the front of our attention. Here are a few examples: we can place fresh berries at a shrine whenever we pass by, we can read an intention aloud on a regular basis, we can send a card to a loved one, we can make a regular gift of time or money to a cause that we want to support. Whenever I run a trail near my home I place two pieces of quartz that I pick up from the trail on a monument for somebody’s child to help me remember that we all have value. These examples show that we can nurture our ideals in different ways.
What ideals do you have that you want to keep alive, and how do you nurture these ideals? Perhaps you do this already, but perhaps you don’t. Can you think of little habits or rituals that help you maintain a focus on your ideals? Placing berries on a shrine or pieces of quartz on a monument are simple actions that take little time, expense, or effort. Are you willing to commit to one small but regularly repeated action that help nurture an ideal that is important to you?