Categories: uncategorized
Date: 27 July 2006 02:04:02
Settling back into routine after 3 months off is proving to be a little bit harder than I thought. We're sick with coughs and colds and sore throats, and generally grumpy at each other. A "pastoral call" from our rather intuitive priest made me realise we're not doing all that good.
It was just sooo good out in the desert. Up north we'd be up at 5.30 or 6am into the warm sunrise, go exploring, wash in a river, cook dinner in the sunset, wash up and go to bed about 7.30, 8 O'clock. It was a really good rhythm. I loved the simplicity. Here electricity seems to keep us up on the ccomputer, and housework is never ending.
How do I get back to that lifestyle while living in suburbia?
We visited New Norcia, a benedictine monastic town. You may remember Ian staying there. Apart from all the beautiful architecture and decoration, I found it truly inspiring to think of all these guys who have commited themselves to owning nothing, welcoming guests, and prayer. They're committed to celibacy too, but that's not going to work for me. In fact I think it's 'unbiblical' for a married person. Phew!
Living out of the back of a car with very limited 'stuff', chatting to everyone we met was certainly better than living in a house with a bunch of stuff, isolated from everyone.
We've commenced a big clean out to get rid of as much stuff as we can. It's proving a bit difficult. How much stuff should we keep to make our many house guests comfortable? Out in the bush you can share a cup of tea, cos you know the other person has their cup in the back of their car. I don't think any of our recent guests has has their own cup in their bag! Although they did buy their own food. I haven't quite got back into the shopping thing.
Even churches give out show bags full of crap at family fun days etc. It's just not right to chop down a couple of the trees God gave us and pump some polluntants into the atmosphere God made for to give out stuff for a few seconds entertainment that's going to end up as land fill. But that's a slightly different topic.
I wouldn't mind having a look at Benedict's rules for monastic communities. I wonder if we could somehow do it here?