A New Year

I've been at the Church of St. Benedict for a year and a month.
I've been married for four months and a day.
I've been living in this apartment for almost five months.
I've been living in Bolingbrook for almost 14 months.

2008 was a year of many changes for me. Most of my energy this year has gone into just weathering all those changes. It's been wonderful and exhausting. I'm ready for a year of doing things for the second time (although not the getting married part!), and putting down some roots. We'll probably buy a house and get a dog. And I like the advice of the Dalai Lama on living well: eat less, sleep more.

But perhaps I should pay more attention to the intangible things I want to do this year. I'm going to pray on that a little. I think prayer actually is something I need to deepen in my life. Maybe bible study, too. It would be a solid foundation for my ministry work each day, but I also find spiritual routines difficult because I have a terrible weakness for distractions! My aunt sometimes says she things everyone in our family had mild ADD. Sometimes I think most Americans have mild ADD these days. Perhaps with the exception of the Amish?

I've thought for many years about becoming an oblate -- an associate of a Benedictine monastery. Yesterday, I got a letter from a monastery I've been connected to for years, Holy Wisdom in Madison, WI, inviting me to consider their oblate program again. It's a big commitment, but I wonder if it would be a good discipline for me. Not a decision to take lightly.

And if we get a house in 2009, I will have a garden. This is both a concrete and a deeply spiritual joy for me. To have a relationship with a piece of dirt, to grow some of our own food, to plant flowers, to see worms and bugs... wow. That will be what I remember when I get flustered with house showings and layouts and numbers of bathrooms. In some way, having that sunny backyard will overshadow anything about the inside of the house. Stay tuned....