In Which I Retreat to the Abbey of Gethsemani

The Abbey of Gethsemani
near Bardstown, Kentucky

Last year over the four-day Thanksgiving Day weekend, I took a retreat from writing and technology and everyday distractions and discontents. I didn't even have to pack a suitcase as I stayed at home and hunkered down with books and my journal and sketchbooks. Many naps later, I felt restored.

This Thanksgiving week, beginning Monday, I am going on another retreat but I will have to pack a small bag. I am signed up for four days at the Abbey of Gethsemani, a Trappist monastery about one hour away from my home. 

Over the past 20 years or so, I have stayed many times in the Abbey's guesthouse and roamed its wooded grounds and gardens, browsed the shelves of its library, and attended frequent prayer services with the monks and other retreatants.

Meals there are taken in silence. No talking or listening to music or radio in one's room. No whispering in the hallway. There is no internet or cell phone service. I find it to be quite refreshing to be away from the chatter of the everyday world. 

The Abbey is also a famous literary site as it was the home of author Thomas Merton who is best known for his autobiography The Seven Storey Mountain, along with his journals and letters, and his books containing reflections on the spiritual life. 

My favorite is his Secular Journal in which he writes about art and literature and travel. Its entries were made before he came to live at the Abbey. In its last pages, Merton writes that he is spending time at Gethsemani to consider whether to become part of its community. The final entry reads:

"I shall speak to one of the friars."

Merton, known to his fellow monks as Father Louis, entered the Abbey on December 10, 1941. Twenty-seven years later to the day, Merton died in Bangkok, Thailand after giving a talk at an interfaith conference there. He was accidentally electrocuted by an electric fan as he stepped out of his bath. 

His body was flown back to the Abbey of Gethsemani and he is buried there. His grave marker is as simple and plain as the white robe and hooded black scapular that he wore.

I am looking forward to this uninterrupted time away from my computer and chores and am resisting the impulse to overpack - not clothes, mind you, but books. I usually take too many and then find something in the guesthouse library that I end up reading instead.  

It will be a fine way to spend these few days at Thanksgiving, to fall into the rhythm of the monks' schedule, to read and reflect, and to be away from the distractions of worldly affairs.

In Which I Return to the Real World

My at-home, no-writing retreat went something like this:

Reading: Alternated between At Home by Bill Bryson (I swear the man cannot write a dull sentence!); Cross Creek by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings (I can see why some her neighbors were a bit upset with her characterizations of them); As We Were by E.F. Benson (a fascinating look at his famous family and Victorian England); and Booknotes - America's Finest Authors on Reading, Writing, and the Power of Ideas with Brian Lamb (so many wonderful things to learn). I finished up The Bedside Guardian 1978-79 and a thriller, Chasing the Storm, by Martin Molsted. Also, began the third of Ann Bridge's Julia Probyn adventures, The Numbered Account. This one finds the irrepressible Ms. Probyn in Switzerland. 

Cataloging: I got twenty-one books cataloged (two cards each) before I ran out of index cards. Creating a card catalog of books from my family's collection and my own purchases of vintage books is proving to be a delightful and worthwhile project. 

Watching: OK, I broke my own rule about not turning on any screens. I watched four Booknotes programs on my computer that are available on the C-SPAN website: David McCullough on Truman; Rick Bragg on Somebody Told Me - The Newspaper Stories of Rick Bragg; Nicholas Basbanes on A Gentle Madness; and Simon Winchester on The Professor and the Madman about the making of the Oxford English Dictionary. I think I would follow Mr. Winchester just about anywhere. He is so entertaining!

Because I could listen to David McCullough talk for hours, I also watched a two-part interview that he did with Brian Lamb on the C-SPAN program Q&A. He discussed his book The Greater Journey about American artists, writers, sculptors and medical students who went to Paris between 1830 and 1900. They went not only to learn and further their own knowledge and careers, but also to bring that knowledge back to America. I read this terrific book last year and wrote about it here. 

Mr. McCullough is so enthusiastic about his subjects. His eyes just sparkle! I have owned his biography of President Harry Truman for years and after listening to Mr. McCullough sing his praises, I will soon be pulling the book down from the shelf to begin. It is about one thousand pages in length so it will take me a while to finish, but I do believe it will be well worth my time.

Napping: Many naps and such a luxury.

Walking: The weather was almost balmy and my daily walks were a pleasant activity after being indoors doing all of the above.

I also did a bit of decluttering and wrote a few notes and letters. And there was time spent just staring into space. A nice little rest for the mind.

The oatmeal/cranberry cookies I had with tea were delicious and are now, sadly, all gone. 

It really was a fine four days. It was so nice not to think, "What do I have to do now" and instead get to wonder, "What do I want to do now." I will certainly be planning more retreats like this one. 

How did you spend the past few days?