Hermitage Notes - Monday Morning First Thoughts

Very first thoughts when beginning to awaken in the morning can be interesting.

This morning? Solitude and what it means to live as a solitary [in my case as an approximate-solitary]. 

Approximate means almost. 

Description of David … Approximate monk. Almost a monk. Approximate hermit. Almost a hermit. Almost. 

I could not help but to think about someone that introduced me to the writings of Thomas Merton. We lived a few blocks from each other when we met and became friends. Now? Distance. I remind myself that "distances" are too often a cruel cross to be borne.

[It was Merton that started me on my pursuit of things "monastic".]

My phone rang. 

Only a very few people [the fingers of one hand are more than sufficient to count them] call me now that I have retired from the lawn care business. I am beginning to wonder why I maintain the expense of a cell phone.

The nurse from my doctor’s office wanted to know if I had received notification about the prescription that my doctor had called in. We had not. So here we are getting dressed to leave the solitude of our little spot in the woods to go into town to pick up a prescription for some blood pressure meds. 

Imagine that. 

Me?

[PHOTO - September 2005. A half day's walk deep in the Manitoba bush. BEAR country. Signs of their bear activity surrounded us.]