A Few Strange Thoughts...

Many of these ponderings have been brought to you by arianadream's LJ. Thank you.

I was thinking the other day that I miss nunneries and monasteries. Let me try to explain this. I've never been to a nunnery or a monastery (I don't think Westminster Cathedral/Abbey counts). I was thinking about the Brother Cadfael series, though, and the way that monasteries worked during his period of history in England. They were sanctuaries, and not just for the monks who lived and worked in them. Theoretically, anyone could seek sanctuary in a monastery, even if all the seeker wanted was to rest from the world for a while. Of course,if you sought sanctuary in a monastery, you had to attend certain services and work within the set schedule dictated by life there, but I don't think that would have been a bad thing. As I understand it, nunneries worked in much the same way.

I think the main attraction for me would be the order of life in a cloister. Everything is set out for you--mealtimes, prayer times, time to sleep, free time, etc. If you wanted to learn how to do something, you coul dask, and there would probably be someone there who could teach you. In any case, cloistered life makes sure you get enough to eat and enough sleep. You don't have to worry about possessions, because you don't really have any. You are more able to concentrate on God and helping your fellow human beings, because that's pretty much what your life consists of.

I do, of course, realize that many of the monasteries and nunneries of Brother Cadfael's time were rife with corruption and rivalry, but the idea is a good one, I think.

While I still think that, nowadays, I'd make a horrible nun (I'm kinda claustrophobic, I'm married, and I'm not Catholic), I sometimes long for that kind of sanctuary. I have a hard time being organized on my own (as anyone who has seen my living quarters will testify), I often find myself getting too busy to focus on God, and I almost always feel as though I have too much stuff and I can never find what I want. I'm seriously considering just chucking a whole bunch o fmy stuff, organizing the rest, and seeing how that turns out. Of course, this means I'll have to get off my lazy duff and actually do something. I wonder how much stuff I can throw away? To be perfectly honest, that's a liberating thought...maybe, if I just get rid of a bunch of stuff, I wouldn't trip over something every time I try to walk somewhere. What a brilliant notion!

In any case, as I was thinking about sanctuary, I started thinking about how fast our world goes and how fast people have to move to keep up with it. Wouldn't it be nice to have some sort of quiet place where you could hide from the bustling world, even if it was just for a couple of hours, and gather your thoughts? Some people have managed to find these "sanctuaries" for themselves, whether the place is the office on weekends, a studio, a bedroom, a corner of the couch, or just a particular place on their own minds. I think humans instinctively crave sanctuary, a place where they are utterly safe and can just be themselves without having to please anyone.

So, that's your deep ponderings from me today. I am currently suffering from acute guilt because I haven't gotten all of my thank you notes out from the wedding, and we've been married almost two months. *sighs*

In other news, thank you to everyone who left comments on my last entry. I'm feeling a bit better today, and I'll be talking to my mom about options for Zypo tonight. With any luck, we can get him to a home with people who will love him.

The story I'm currently writing (working title: Deathworld) is still coming along well. Alex is great to bounce ideas off of, and he also comes up with some good stuff for the niggling little problems that bother me so. The characters are deifinitely making their voices heard--I'm working on preliminary sketches for some portraits, and I'll tryo to finish and post some of them soon. Maybe that'll be a motivation for me to get some finished drawings done!

I just checked my Elfwood gallery. I haven't updated in three years. I feel like such a bad person. I need to update ASAP--better hook up the ol' scanner. Of course, it doesn't help that I've been feeling really insecure about my artwork lately. There are so many talented artists out there, and it seems like most of them are younger than I am. But then, I don't practice half as much as I should, and I hardly ever finish anything. It's becoming very frustrating.

Well, enough rambling. Time to do something productive. Please pray and/or send happy thoughts my way today. I'm gonna need 'em.