The New Normal
The monks and nuns of New
Skete closed their monasteries this past March 14th, and it seemed extremely
unusual and strange to contact individuals and tell them that their retreat
time at New Skete was canceled because of the COVID-19 virus. My thinking was that
this will not last long and we will be back to normal soon. Well, here we are almost
three months later, and the news on the internet and television is
discouraging. It’s my job to go to the Post Office and pick up the mail, and
the new normal is to wear a face mask and gloves. Periodically, I go food
shopping to local supermarkets, and once again, I wear a face mask and gloves.
Some of the supermarkets have one-way aisles and God Help Me if I go down the
wrong way on an aisle, which did happen; I was not paying attention, and a
woman was quick to tell me that I was going down the wrong way of the wide end
aisle. I apologized to her, thinking that the supermarket “policeman or woman”
was going to pull me over and write me a ticket.
I began to hear individuals on the internet mention “TP,”
and I was confused as to what these initials meant, finding out later that “TP’
means toilet paper. We all know by now that people hoard toilet paper, paper
towels, and cleaning supplies. OK, yes, these items are important, but if I
were to hoard anything, I’d prefer to have coffee, ice cream, chocolates, and
dog biscuits for Quilla, my German Shepherd roommate and buddy. Six months ago,
if you walked into a store with a mask over your face, the police would have
been called, but now this is the new normal.
The adult dog training kennel is closed, and there are no
puppies in the puppy kennel, so minor repairs are being done in the puppy
kennel by Dave, just in time for Quilla to have her next litter of puppies.
Josh, our cook and maintenance staff, keeps us fed and does needed repairs.
Let’s not forget the six inches of snow that New Skete received on May 9th and
the tornado warnings that we got on May 15th. Never a dull moment. Carey makes
sure that all the bills are paid and the monastery finances are in order. We
are blessed to have the monks’ monastery on 472 acres of land to walk the dogs,
and Brother Luke works very hard maintaining the hiking trails and keeping them
open. Brother Marc does minor repairs and cooks the evening meals. Brother
Stavros keeps the order of the services smooth, as the monastics still maintain
the daily services, even with no guests; he also maintains contact with Brother
Peter, who lives at a nearby assisted living residence. Brother Christopher
sends out reflections and videos to all Companions of New Skete and friends.
Brother Ambrose keeps up with the daily monastery correspondence to prison
inmates needing encouragement, and friends of the community. We are also
blessed with our new candidate, David, who is eager to pitch in and help with
all the dogs, dog grooming, Zoom technologies, and classes. Ralph, our resident
experience volunteer since January of this year, is also a big help with
walking dogs, cleaning dishes, internet technologies, and more. Other staff are
working at home and keeping the needs of the monasteries fulfilled, so we are
blessed in many ways.
Someone said that it must be nice to be on vacation. But
as most of you know, this period of time is not a vacation, and everyone is
under different types of stress. The monastics pray daily for all humanity and for
those serving or afflicted by the COVID-19 virus. We wear masks and keep social
distancing when out in the local community, and we wash our hands. The new
normal.
We pray for you; we are thinking of you, and we miss you!
Comments
Post a Comment