A seeker walked a long distance to ask the guidance of Sister Mahala whom many called Amma Mahala. When he met her, in the fashion of pilgrims seeking out the abbas and ammas in the desert of Egypt in the 3rd century, he bowed his head once in a reverent nod and said, “Amma, give me a word of life.”
Sister Mahala nodded obligingly and reached out toward the pilgrim. She took his hands in hers, held them firmly. With her eyes, she gently held the young man’s face. He felt beheld. After a few seconds he looked away from her penetrating, but kind stare. When he felt her close her eyes he bowed his head and closed his eyes. They stood together like that wrapped in a shawl of silence.
When Sister Mahala opened her eyes, she gave the hands of her visitor a tiny bounce. When he opened his eyes she smiled reassuringly, and said slowly, “Ooh and aah.”
The pilgrim said, “Ooh and aah?”
“Ooh and aah.” said Sister Mahala.
The man nodded. “Okay,” he said.
“One hundred ‘oohs’ and ‘aahs’ every day,” she said, joggling his hands as she said each word which she spoke as if prescribing medicine.
The man returned her smile. Bowing his head slightly, he lifted her hands and kissed them. “Ooh and aah. Thank you, Amma. One hundred. Thank you,” he said, then turned and began his long walk home.
Six years passed and the man made the long trek again into the desert to ask Amma Mahala if she might give him another word of life. He greeted the amma. But before he asked for a word, he reminded her that six years earlier he had come and when he asked her for a word of life she said One hundred oohs and aahs every day.
“I remember,” she said. “And have you? Oohed and aahed?”
”Yes, Amma. I have. Every day. I don’t always get to one hundred. But I do ooh and aah each day.”
“The Spirit of the law is grace,” she said. “No one’s keeping score.”
“What I discovered, Amma,” he said, “is that the more I ooh and aah, the more there is to ooh and aah about. And another thing. Sometimes the “ooh” comes out as wonder and delight, other times as pathos or compassion. And sometimes the “aah” comes out as awe and quiet praise, other times as anguish or disgust.
“Yes, whichever the heart needs to speak,” said Amma Mahala. “You have learned well.”
~ Dan Miller, © 2020. All Rights Reserved.
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on The Sacred Braid. Maybe pass this along. Thank you, Dan
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