birthday adventure #1 - my silent retreat

I promised myself that I would celebrate 12 birthdays this year, after being too sick to celebrate my birthday last year, and missing out on Thanksgiving dinner (my Thanksgiving...pouring an extra can of Ensure through the  feeding tube in my stomach.)  That's all the rationalization I needed to justify my decision to celebrate 12 birthday adventures this year.

So I had my first adventure August 5.   I got up early, hit the road around 7AM, had an egg McMuffin and coffee on the way out of town, passed a small town farmer's market where I bought a loaf of Zuchini bread, (which I nibbled on for the next 24 hours), and arrived at the Monastery around 9:00.  A beautiful place, with a pond, a path, a chapel, meeting rooms for meditation, a dining room with wonderful fresh food, and small but adequate sleeping rooms. No TV's, no radio's, no cell phone coverage, no sounds but the crickets, birds and breeze.  

my day at the monastery...

I spent most of the day in silent reflection and meditation, and spent one hour in conversation with one of the monks...Father Thomas.  Thursday evening I went to night prayers with the eight or so monks there, and I was the only guest.  The whole day was refreshing to me, and I felt very much the presence of God in my silence.  It was very peaceful... I had a few moments of overwhelming gratitude for it all...my life, my cancer, my healing, my Lord.  I needed it.   A wonderful way to start my year of birthday adventures.  Not only that, but during the morning there was a brief conference of priests being held in one of the meeting rooms.  At lunch, one of the priests was celebrating a birthday and the cook prepared a birthday cake for the group of priests.  I sat as far as possible from the table of priests so as to maintain my silence and quiet as much as possible...one of the priests brought a piece of birthday cake over to me.  (my idea for having 12 birthday adventures included having a piece of "birthday" cake on every adventure...so...well...let's just say...thank you, God for seeing to such a small, but pleasant detail). The priests left early afternoon, and it seemed I had the place to myself the rest of the day.  After afternoon meditation and the night prayer service (not being Catholic, I was a bit out of place with the logistics and liturgy, but the monks were very gracious to show me the way through the prayer book and hymnal... it was a meaningful prayer service). Later I spent nearly two hours in the small library reading the Bible and reading some from a volume of writings of the desert fathers...  I was completely alone in the library with a comfortable chair and lots of interesting books.  Nice.

I got up around 6:00AM on Friday, and gave myself enough time to stop for a "proper" breakfast on my way back to Lincoln...there is something celebratory about having a big breakfast on the road...it feels so...indulgent.  I like Egg McMuffins...but a full plate of eggs, hash browns, bacon, toast and coffee just after the sun comes up is so delightful!  On my way back to Lincoln on Friday morning I stopped at a truck stop for such a  breakfast.  The truck stop was a full 60 miles from home. I have stopped there about 15 times over the past decade when traveling.  It's been over a year since my last visit... the same farmers were at the same table talking about the same subjects that they talked about every other time I have been there.  And I tell the truth...when I sat down, the waitress knew me by name, and asked if I wanted my usual order.      IT"S BEEN OVER A  YEAR since my last visit.  She told me she'd worked there 38 years, and she's only got 10 more years before she can retire.   And...as always...the hash browns and eggs were piping hot, tasted great, and I drank enough coffee to float home.  Mmmmm.   

Back to my day at the monastery...

Of course, I didn't need to go to a monastery to meet with God... but it does something special for the experience to be in a place built and dedicated solely to prayer and retreat. Think about listening to a symphony orchestra playing Beethoven in a gym vs. a regal symphony hall.   You may hear the music in either place, but there's a difference that goes beyond just the acoustics...  There is.