On Ash Wednesday I read this quote from Thomas Merton, a monk, a
writer, a theologian, and even from inside of a monastery, an
activist:
"In some monastic communities, monks go up to receive the ashes
barefoot. Going barefoot is a joyous thing. It is good feel the
floor or the earth under your feet. It is good when the whole church
is silent, filled with the hush of people walking without shoes. One
wonders why we wear such things as shoes anyway. Prayer is so much
more meaningful without them. It would be good to take them off in
church all the time."
On Ash Wednesday I took on the second assignment. Breakfast was steel
cut oatmeal with pecans and maple syrup. It was good. I'd been
eating some instant oatmeal lately it doesn't compare to this
goodness. Sometimes I think its not as much the taste but the process
of cooking and thinking about the simple goodness of the oats, maple
syrup and pecans and where they come from. It reminded me of the
Merton quote, that stripping down to get to the essentials, is good
and holy work. In retrospect I should have eaten my oatmeal barefoot.
My other two meals had good aspirations but then I realized that
several of the items had more than 4 ingredients. Its amazing how the
layers just sneak in there!
for example lunch: 1.apples, 2 carrots, 3 water, 4 sandwich (with
four parts): 1. bread-from a bakery, don't know ingredients, 2. roast
beef-just roast beef maybe?, 3. provolone-probably more that four, 4.
red pepper sauce-more than 4.
Going to the deepest layers is always the hardest isn't it?
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