I am delighted to share another beautiful submission for the Monk in the World guest post series from the community. Read on for Melinda Thomas Hansen’s wisdom about the dance of becoming a monk in the world: It is all too easy to fill my hours with tasks – things that need doing. There are classes to plan, lectures to prepare, websites to build; bills to pay, emails to answer, and products – necessary and unnecessary – to search for on Amazon. The tasks have a way of making themselves seem to be of utmost importance. They arrange themselves in lists on notepads and in

I am delighted to share another beautiful submission for the Monk in the World guest post series from the community. Read on for Jim Cyr’s wisdom about the grace of stories: “My story is important not because it is mine, God knows, but because if I tell it anything like right, the chances are you will recognize that in many ways it is also yours… it is precisely through these stories in all their particularity, as I have long believed and often said, that God makes himself known to each of us more powerfully and personally. If this is true, it means that to lose

I am delighted to share another beautiful submission for the Monk in the World guest post series from the community. Read on for Cyndi Gallo Callan’s wisdom about what matters most: Prior to Thanksgiving I began thinking about Advent and how I would embrace the season; it always passes so quickly.  Instead of how I thought Advent would be embraced, I found myself reflecting on the theme living as a monk in the world, what it meant in my life, and for those around me.  The reflections moved through me like tidal currents. It was obvious that the Holy Spirit settled within me, as my

I am delighted to share another beautiful submission for the Monk in the World guest post series from the community. Read on for Morgana Morgaine’s wisdom on becoming a Holy Fool: A Monk in the World, Holy Fool in Training! I most closely identify with and revere the monk as Holy Fool.  Holy Fool is a bit of a maverick, well, more than a little! She/he is most likely to be irreverently reverent, using laughter as a way to delight in everyday experience. St. Francis of Assisi who is credited with saying:  “I hung upside down so that I could see the world as it

I am delighted to share another beautiful submission for the Monk in the World guest post series from the community. Read on for DG Hollums’ wisdom on seeing the world more deeply: I’ve always been an outgoing extrovert. My soul is filled up by being around others and enjoying the smiles and love of others around me. As a child I was passionately quick to love and really did not know a stranger. I was always the one that would hug others. Even those who did not “appreciate” hugs, I would make a B-line for them just to make sure they knew that they

I am delighted to share another beautiful submission for the Monk in the World guest post series from the community. Read on for Carolyn Ash’s wisdom about gardening and the gift of weeds: My Garden, My Monastery A day in my Southern California garden sparkles with peace, quiet, calm. Turning soil, tending plants, spraying a bit of water eases my spirit, energizes my body, and creates space in my mind. Repeated motions become a mantra for my hands and body. The mundane becomes sacred: sifting arid soil through my fingers, pulling weeds, feeling the heft of my tools, noticing earthy things with fresh vision. My

This week in our Monk in the World guest post series we have two beautiful poems from fellow monk and artist Asther Bascuna-Creo who lives in Australia. Read on for her wisdom about silence and the contemplative path: Silence And in her middle years she discovers silence. Not the kind you find In a remote abbey nor on a grand cathedral, Not the type you seek in silent retreats nor in places of meditation. But the sitting down in the kitchen bench type The standing in front of the stovetop type The folding the week’s washing type While dinner sizzles over