I got a positive, if smallish, jolt this morning. My Abbott emailed me about a couple of tasks that I had been lax on and asked me to, you know, DO THEM. It dawned on me, in a deeper way, that this monastic calling is truly about obedience. Not that what was requested was onerous; indeed I had agreed to do it willingly. But the accountability is there. This is a community, a family. If we promise to do something, someone else has to take up the slack if we don't perform. Like, a huge DUH erupted in the Pleroma.

But, still, it is precious to me. It is precious to me because it means that our community is now beginning to do the WORK of community, which, is, after all, to BE community.

Sorry if that sounds banal. I suppose it is. But still, it felt like a little grace, a little joy.