Our day at the monastery starts with Centering Prayer. We meet in the Oratory-a kind of small chapel- with an organ, a cross, a small lectern and a large candle at one end. There are four rows of chairs facing one another across a center aisle. One one wall there is an icon of Jesus looking all business-like and yet nice and patient. . . . The Oratory is silent, the large candle is lit and we file in for what begins our new day. Taking our seats we get comfortable and wait. When she is sure all are in, …
That is one Green building!
The monastery grounds are beautiful and spare and austere and lush all at the same time. Everything about the buildings is light and airy yet solid and secure. Kind of like the Swiss Family Robinson Tree House. The outside is sandy brick studded with solar panels and surrounded with prairie, gardens, fruit trees, and grass as soft as your grandma’s Berber carpet. There are flowers all around-riots of yellow coneflowers, purple prairie clover, and white milkweed, all nodding in the heat of the brilliant July noon. And everywhere there is tall and verdant Prairie grass. I imagine this must be what …
Bluebirds are not blue all over
I learned that today. About bluebirds. They have reddish orange throats and brownish bodies. But their wings are blue and they are gorgeous when they fly. Like little pieces of sky. Getting up at 6:30 am is getting easier as the days progress. The monastery bells start at 7am and ring every half hour. I appreciate their timekeeping. They are not only a call to prayer for me-I count the ”dings” and then judge from that where I have to be – but also the only timepiece I have since I wear no watch and I have left my phone charger in Chicago. …
In the Garden of Eating
I eat food. I eat at least three meals a day, sometimes I snack. And I enjoy food. Well, more accurately, I enjoy restaurants and cooking. I love to read about food, the traditions, the history, how to cook it. I know things about food. Like, that it comes out of the ground. Sometimes from trees and animals. Sometimes it’s expensive, sometimes not. And I know there are a lot of people who don’t have it. I have always had food. Good food, a lot of times great food. . . . So, I was surprised at my reaction to my …
I saw a pear tree today
And it made me cry. I suppose that’s not the usual response to viewing fruit trees. But I had never seen one in person before and it was so beautiful and it looked so graceful spreading its dusky green branches out, its small, hard fruit bending its weight this way and that with the wind… I nearly stepped back out of some strange sense of respect. I knew pears grew on trees, of course. I had eaten pears in the past. But to see it there… Today is my first day at Holy Wisdom Monastery in Madison, WI. I have come from Chicago to …