How to deal with periods of spiritual "dryness"

Aridity is a word that Theresa of Ávila once used. Or, at any rate, the Spanish for it, but you get what I mean. If you have ever been to Ávila, you will see why this occurred to her as an image. That part of Spain has endless, desolate expanses. It is extraordinary to drive through or fly over.

She experienced periods of desolation as well as consolation. Both are natural parts of the spiritual journey.

Judging the path by the emotion it induces is what makes least sense, however. Even years in, the emotions tend to lag significantly behind the causal events or actions. That's why we detonate small nuclear devices over people's heads and have no idea why we're doing it. We're actually reacting to what Jennifer said to us in autumn 1996, and it's taken 15 years to hit us. Like the light from stars that have burned out, lighting up today's sky. Also, at any given moment, what you feel is the result of everything you have ever thought and done. Everything. All condensed down to one moment. Pretty hard to judge, therefore, exactly why we feel what we feel when we feel it.

Alcoholics are people who wonder why we're still hungry when we're still mixing the flour and butter. Or wonder why we are still in pain a day after the surgery is over.

Electricity works only if you have a circuit. Remove what interrupts the circuit, and you have a circuit. Unlike an electrical circuit, however, the flow is not always instant.

Perhaps a better image is opening up the gates in a dam. Except we're way downstream. The aridity can seem to last forever, and become more acute when we are already taking the right actions.

Spiritual laws would suggest that no prayer or prayerful action can go unanswered, just like gravity is not partial or sporadic.

Hang in there.