Letting Go in 2015

Yard sales are an opportunity to:
 meet old friends & neighbors    get rid of excess   downsize your stuff

     St. Benedict may have approved. Stressing moderation in every aspect of life, he counseled his monks to use only what they needed, rather than accumulating excessive possessions. Items sold by the monks were to be priced “a little lower than people outside the monastery are able to set.” 

     We had a great time meeting friends and neighbors at the recent yard sale on August 22 at the Gate House (below in black and white), and were certainly successful at reducing our excess. At this point in the life of the monastery, the house itself represents more living space than we need. And more living space than we are willing to maintain. The cost-benefit analysis on this simple frame house was easy to do, but there is an intangible cost to demolition. The house as landmark, memories of good times living in community, stories from the time the boiler man lived there and sold chicken dinners through an opening on the side porch. 

     The sisters are grateful to friends and neighbors who carried away what we no longer needed. When the Gate House lives on only in memory, and a certain wistfulness comes over us, we will recall the words of the Teacher Koheleth:

            For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven.

   Sr. Christa Kreinbrink, OSB