Away to the Abbey

Abbey of Gethsemani

It is time for my annual Thanksgiving week retreat to the Abbey of Gethsemani near Bardstown, Kentucky. I have been spending the holiday week with the monks for the past few years, and I have been on retreats to Gethesmani many times over the past 30 years or so. 

Last year, because the Abbey's guest house was closed for refurbishing, I retreated to Saint Meinrad Archabbey in Indiana. Although I spent a pleasant few days there, there is nothing quite like the silence and contemplative atmosphere of Gethsemani.

I'll have a private room with bath, a bed, a desk, a comfortable chair, and days of unstructured time.

I am so ready.

Of course, my biggest decision is what books to take. I usually pack more than I could ever read in a few days, but I never know what I might be in the mood for. The guesthouse has a wonderful library and I usually end up plucking a book or two off its shelves to explore as well.

After much consideration, I'll take only two books with me.

I just purchased a copy of The Bullet Journal Method by Ryder Carroll.  I have toyed with my own version of this popular way of tracking time and tasks, and although it might sound an odd choice to take on retreat, I want to give the author's ideas and suggestions uninterrupted attention.

This is the opening line:

The Bullet Journal method's mission is to help us become mindful about how we spend our two most valuable resources in life: our time and our energy.

Seems like a good choice for contemplating the upcoming year.

The other book is one I have had for a while but have not had the opportunity to fully examine: A Book That Takes Its Time - An Unhurried Adventure in Creative Mindfulness by the editors of FLOW magazine. It is filled with essays on slowing down, living with intention, and all sorts of creative paper goodies - postcards, stickers, collage elements, and fill-in lists. I love lists! It is a beautiful book and I can't wait to dive in. Slowly, of course.

I'll also take a few basic art supplies, my journal, and an open spirit. There are always surprising adventures to be enjoyed in this place that feels almost as familiar as home - but without chores and errands and the constant interruptions of technology.

If you are in America and celebrating this week, enjoy your Thanksgiving however you choose to spend it. 

The Declutter Code: 10 Simple Steps to Clarity by Yvette Bowlin

I came across an excerpt from The Declutter Code: 10 Simple Steps to Clarity right before I was getting ready to head off on my retreat at the Abbey of Gethsemani. I liked what author Yvette Bowlin had to say about outside clutter being a sign of inside clutter and discovered her ebook was available on Amazon for 99 cents.

As the only screen I took with me to the monastery was my Kindle, I figured this would be a perfect opportunity to read a little deeper into Ms. Bowlin's steps to clarity. 

No clutter here. The book runs a mere 138 pages but packs in a lot of information. This is not a how-to-clean-your-closets book. You won't find directions for ditching your desk debris or a blueprint for banishing your baking tins.

Ms. Bowlin believes that our environmental clutter is a result of our cluttered minds and that is the mess she intends to clean up. 

In Part One, The Truth About Clutter, she looks at our "overcrowded, overloaded and overwhelmed minds." Too much noise along with too many ToDo lists, phone calls, errands, emails, texts, and endless news alerts. We are constantly frazzled and dazzled. 

It's no wonder our closets are stuffed, our kitchen cabinets are clogged, and we can't find our car keys.

I admit I sort of rushed through Part One as I know what the problem is. I wanted to get on to the solution.

In Part Two, Clearing Clutter, she offers that solution. Ah. Take a deep breath. Feel your mind relaxing and your thoughts clearing...just a bit. Clarity, as she defines it, is "freedom from anxiety and overwhelm. It is freedom from overthinking, overload and overcompensation. A clear mind is a peaceful mind."

Her 10 Steps to Clarity, which she developed from her own experiences in clearing her cluttered life, I found to be practical and easy to follow. She suggests concentrating on each step for one week. Each step builds off the one before. There is no rush.

In each chapter she gives a short explanation of the step, how it clears mental clutter, what it feels like, and a tool or tools for implementing the step. Finally she offers up an experiment - three or four suggestions to try out for yourself and make note of the outcomes.

Since her Step One is Slow, Step Two is Still, and Step Three is Silence, being on retreat allowed me to really immerse myself in all of those. I could feel my mind slowing down and could actually grab hold of a thought or two as they went swirling by. I had nowhere to be and purposely slowed my walking pace and didn't hurry through my meals. There were plenty of opportunities and quiet places to be still and silent at the monastery and I took advantage of them.

But guess what. Now I am back into the Race and Rush of Life. I am no longer on the monastery's time of slow, still, and silence.  I have not read Step Four which is Space. I have not read ahead to the rest of the steps: See, Shift, Simplify, Savor, Sort, and Sleep. (OK, maybe I am already practicing that last one!)

I think it would be helpful for me to go ahead and read through the rest of the steps. To get an idea of the big picture. Then I can start over and implement her suggestions.  I really do want to know what she has to say, so I won't give up.

If you are looking for a little peace and serenity - and who isn't - this well-written book offers some workable suggestions on how to bring some clarity into your life.

Now, breathe...

Thanksgiving at the Abbey of Gethsemani

For the second consecutive year, I spent four days during Thanksgiving week on a private, silent retreat at the Abbey of Gethsemani. It was a relief to be free from the distractions of computers, cell phones, and chores.

Not much changes at the Abbey, a Trappist monastery in the midst of the rolling hills of Kentucky about an hour's drive from my home. Constancy is the word that comes to mind. Our little dramas come and go, people in our lives come and go, and yet for over 165 years the monks there have continued to pray for us and for the world. 

Somebody has to.

I have been staying at Gethsemani off and on for 25 years. Although it is a Catholic monastery, I don't by any means consider my retreats there to be religious. I do attend several of the nine daily prayer services to listen to the monks chant the Psalms and give thanks. It all adds to the contemplative atmosphere.

Because I live alone, you might think it odd that I would feel the need to go somewhere to carve out some solitude. But a retreat offers freedom from the constant decisions and engagements of life: planning meals, cooking, cleaning, running errands, attending to household chores, shopping. All those things that I have to do for myself.

At the guesthouse of the monastery, all that is taken care of. Tasty and simple meals are served and someone else gets to prepare them and clean up. All I have to do is sit down and eat. The only decision I have to make during my stay is what flavor salad dressing to have.

The Abbey was the home of the American writer and monk Thomas Merton (1915-1968) and this past year has seen events and articles celebrating the 100th anniversary of his birth. 

He wrote over 60 books. His autobiography, The Seven Storey Mountain, was written after he entered the monastery in 1941. It was written at the suggestion of the Abbot and was published in 1948, the centenary of the founding of the Abbey.

The library in the guesthouse has an entire bookcase devoted to Merton books. My favorite, and one I have read several times, is his Secular Journal which covers the years 1939-1941. It ends just days before Merton entered the monastery. 

He writes about literature, art, poetry, and time spent in Cuba. He also often reflects on war and the inability of the people of the world to get along. He could have been writing about today. 

This is what the Abbey church looked like in Merton's day...

...and its simpler look today.

On my Kindle I took a copy of The Sign of Jonas which contains portions of his journals from his first five years as a monk. 

I love Merton's 'journal' voice. I sometimes laugh out loud at his descriptions of the goings on at the monastery. Who would think that events there could be so humorous. Merton also enjoys recording the weather doings and makes astute observations about the flora and fauna inside and outside the walls of the Abbey.

As per his instructions, his complete personal journals were not published until 25 years after his death. There are seven books in the series starting with the years before he entered Gethsemani. If I were to download all volumes to my Kindle I would have over 3000 pages to read!

Anyway, my retreat was splendid, I feel refreshed, and I plan on signing up for next year. 

How was your Thanksgiving week?

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.