XM: Sarah McLachlan – “Sweet Surrender”
Mood: Weary
I searched the thesaurus for some interesting mood descriptions but weary still fits best. Runner-ups were: mirthless, lachrymose and saturnine. I’m blaming the mood on hormones and patiently waiting for it to pass. (I’m reminded of the words of Vada Sultenfuss in My Girl: “Go away! And don’t come back for five to seven days!”)
Anyhoo,
Here is the hurried recap of our trip to St. Gregory’s:
(Subject to revision in case you can’t follow my disjointed thought pattern… I wrote it Monday on the way back home.)
Did a good deal of soul searching. Monday after Mass with coffee and monks was so nice. Brothers Martin & Cuthbert showed us a catalog of paper models of churches. Brother Cuthbert is almost finished with the Colonge Cathedral. He loves cookies and ice cream. Father William was in Goshen, IN but came back Saturday, so we had a chance to visit. Brother Martin seems to like the cats. The monks sing the Lord’s Prayer in harmony at Vespers. Beautiful. Went to Matins/Lauds at 5:30 am Sunday. LONG service. Went back to bed and missed Mass. I brought a million bags. We watched Davinci Code at the Three Rivers 6 on Saturday night. Ate at Piasiano’s Ristorante. Ursula was our waitress. We threw grapes off the balcony. We drank sweet tea and ate gourmet sandwiches. We went out on the boat with Brett after dinner. Scary. Important lesson learned: plug the bunghole. Climbed the hill twice. Very steep. Very tired. Legs hurt. Did not solve the Clue puzzle mystery. Met Buster Lite. Saw deer. (Chey, did I miss anything?)
That was it in a nutshell. Now to add coherency to some of those random details.
“Met Buster Lite.” The monks have three new cats at the abbey. All wandered in on their own and decided to stay once they found food and friendship. One of the newcomers is a black persian named Booger. This cat has several nicknames, and we were happy to give him another. Booger is identical to my Buster Brown, with two exceptions: Booger has the correct number of toes and he is more than a tad smaller than Buster. So we call him Buster Lite.
“Ursula was our waitress.” Seriously. After we were seated, she nearly walked right past our table and then came up to us acting a little confused. It was as if she didn’t understand why we were sitting there. But as soon as she figured it out, she asked if we wanted anything to drink. I said “just a water” and she started to walk away. Either she didn’t notice that Chey was sitting there or she assumed that I spoke for both of us. It just got weirder from there. As we were waiting for our food to arrive she came up to our table and asked what she could get us. (Our food, perhaps?) We stared at her, confused. Lightbulb flickering… yes! She got it. “Oh, I already took your order, didn’t I?” Wow. This was definitely Mad About You material. You remember Ursula, the waitress, don’t you? First on Mad About You and then on Friends as Phoebe’s twin sister. I didn’t think people like that actually existed.
“Did a good deal of soul searching.” I finished reading “Cure for the Common Life” by Max Lucado. There is an exercise at the end to aid you in discovering your ultimate passion and calling in life. The exercise is built around the acronym S.T.O.R.Y.
S trengths – how you get things done using your gifts
T opics – what you want to work with
O ptimal conditions – the environments where you work best
R elationships – the role & relationship to others you seek in tasks
Y es! – when you receive joyous affirmation
Here is the summary I ended up with (please don’t laugh and/or say I told you so… what seems obvious to others is never to us):
The themes in my S.T.O.R.Y. show that God has put me together so that I love to play with, talk to and teach children. I particularly like to do that with kids with special needs. I work best in optimal conditions that include an educational setting or a relaxed setting which leaves room for conversation and play. I am at my best when I’m in the role of mentor, guide, or friend. All these themes of my S.T.O.R.Y. work together so that I can empower children to become more confident and reach their full potential.
That’s all I’ve got for now. I took some pictures of the guesthouse so I’ll try to post those soon. I know this is kind of a lame report, but I’m just not in the writing mood (See above. Mirthless and lachrymose do not make for good blogging.) We’ll see if the fog lifts soon.
After 20 years of “abandoning” I think I’m ready to do some “embracing.” Life is becoming sweeter every day.
