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I caught a 5 AM ride out to the abbey with my mom. "I feel like I'm taking my unwilling kid to the summer camp," she said as we left Portland ( Read more... ) -
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"I am returned to the world after three weeks among the Trappists." I like that lead the best, because it makes my experience sound like Jane Goodall out among gorillas in the Congo. Though a number of the monks are considerably hairier and non-talkative than your average human being, I can't actually claim Congo-levels of exoticness from three ( Read more... ) -
after compline, june
Night comes to Guadalupe with a rustling of robes. Behind the nearest man in choir I follow, and bowing to the Prior and his shaker of holy water, am discharged in pair from the long wooden church, towards the dormitories and, hopefully, sleep. Ahead of me there are waves and waves of men in white robes turning and advancing through the cloister ( Read more... ) -
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When it comes to monastic work, I've won the sweepstakes. For the better part of the last two weeks I've been assigned to the stooped and mostly inaudible Br. Clarence. He's 81 and can still deftly operate heavy machinery. The two of us spend mornings up in the thickest parts of the forest, spraying for invasive plants. We put on our hard hats ( Read more... ) -
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Hi american of shit! how are you? Are you watching world cup? Did you ( Read more... ) -
you won the lottery, why are you somewhere else
1. Of all the ways to start out a journal entry, here's a winner: Lately, I Have Felt Narcissistic ( Read more... ) -
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Dick asked me to be hebdomadrary for Monday None. This means I bring the reading ( Read more... ) -
Most Holy Trinity
I dreamt I was caught in an earthquake in a skyscraper downtown, and as the tremors crescendoed and the dinner party I was at buckled into chaos, the building collapsed, and I fell four stories. The pillars and ribbing of the building came at me as in slow motion, and I twisted away each time to break my fall. Some of my friends weren't so lucky ( Read more... ) -
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I love everything about falling in love. The creases on her letters that come from rereading, where in the middle near the fold, her distinct blue print starts to blur. The waves of hills, oak tops and clouds behind her face in profile. The ladybug that crawls on her white sweater, towards her far shoulder, which I refuse to place on my finger ( Read more... ) -
You're like one of those clipper ship captains, Maxy. You're married to the sea.
A likes to describe this stint with the Trappists as spiritual boot-camp. Before I got here, I’d been using phrases of my own like “summer camp for contemplatives,” “self-imposed purgatory,” and “unearned jail time,” but as week two draws to a close, I think I like her description best. Boot-camp captures the military-like ethic around here: ( Read more... )