I went on an Oblates women retreat May 1-3 at St. Benedict's Abbey. While I really appreciated the time to hang out with my monks and walk around campus and pray with them, I did feel a little let down by the retreat. We were all connected loosely to one of the Oblates and therefore the retreat ended up being a little skewed in many ways. It wasn't a bad skewing, just not necessarily my cup of tea. I appreciated the opportunity for a little trip away and a little spiritual direction.
*Tomorrow will either be baked potatoes with bacon/cheese sauce/veggies or german pancake with sauteed apples.
*Tonight was leftovers because the fridge was just a little too full.
*Wednesday night the Son made Basil Tomato Soup and it made a lot! I should have made croutons to go with it but I forgot. Today I bought some parmesan crisps to have with the leftovers.
*Tuesday I made Barbecue Macaroni Salad. I used farfalle for the pasta shape, and I don't think I ever want to use that shape again. It's just too hard to get the middle cooked and not overcook the edges.
*Monday we had a corn and poblano with feta salad on top of bread and toasted tortillas. It was a little spicy but still quite good; I think having it with a starch calms the heat of some poblanos well.
*Sunday we picked up pizza from Pizza Shuttle for supper after a lunch at Mom and Dad's. We had some great tacos. I made some homemade ranch to go with veggies.
Well, it's the same as the past two weeks. I haven't moved on from any of my pieces, and as a currently unemployed musician I am enjoying the down time.
In May I took my last trip to Salina for State Music Festival--at last my last trip with the school I was working for. We have traditions of getting lunch at Cozy Burger and then visiting the antique mall on our lunch break. We enjoyed our trip again even with a little bit of rain, and got to see the progress on the mural that caused a State Supreme Court case that allows Cozy to finish the mural as art even though it is also advertisement.
St. Romuald lived in Italy (Ravenna and then Val-di-Castro) from 951 to 1027. He founded a refomed version of the Benedictines called the Camaldolese Order. There are currently two different Camaldolese orders; one is associated with the Benedictines and includes life in common; the other is more hermit based. Both continue to survive in today's world with sites on 5 different continents.
From the below website, a quote from St. Romuald's rule:
Sit in your cell as in paradise. Put the whole world behind you and forget it. Watch your thoughts like a good fisherman watching for fish. The path you must follow is in the Psalms — never leave it.
(Picture traced from Pinterest to https://www.patheos.com/blogs/kathyschiffer/2013/06/like-a-good-fisherman-watching-for-fish-advice-from-st-romuald/)
Three things I've done today that are slowly helping our house:
1. I put up curtains in the front windows. We have lovely big windows but you can see everything happening on the main floor from across the street. We just need a little more privacy, and this helps while still letting in the beautiful light.
2. I cleaned off the table. It had become a dumping ground because we need that, and honestly a lot of the stuff just moved to a different dumping ground, but one surface is cleaner.
3. I borrowed one bookshelf and set up another so I could get all the music unpacked on a shelf. There's still more to find but I'm getting there.
It's not exactly that moving is hard, more that making new patterns is hard? Leaving old patterns is hard? Reinventing oneself and mourning the old self is hard. But we set up a room for my niece, and we saw some beautiful clouds while walking.
