Home is Where your True Heart Is

Two Jade readers, both called Anne, have articles in the Spring edition of our Order’s Journal. The first Anne speaks of the benefits of staying at Throssel outside of retreat times.

And now, after more times spent there when no retreats are running, the (admittedly, self imposed) lines between Throssel and my home have started to blur as the amount of more ‘ordinary’ experiences at the Abbey interweave with my life in my town, and Throssel seems not only my spiritual home–as it always was–but just like where I live day to day–my home.

The other Anne writes about her journey from the onset of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME) through to her life in Mt. Shasta and her association with Shasta Abbey.

Sometimes I just go over to the Abbey grounds, walk down to the stupa and sit. Or I do some little inconsequential errand that takes me over there, so can feel the difference between the silence of living alone in town and the deep quiet of a spiritual community training together. Underneath my surface unrest, a part of me is deeply content with what is, when self is willing to acknowledge it. “Separate,” one of the monks once said, “but not alone.”

Spare a thought for Anne in America who is having a nasty flare up of symptoms at the moment. A thought for her dog Lily too is appreciated.

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One thought on “Home is Where your True Heart Is”

  1. I found both the articles you mention really helpful. I have felt that Throssel is home for a long time & it is wonderful to get that feeling of coming home when visiting. I understand the explanation about daily life ‘merging’ with the monastery version. It does for me too, although the details differ. That’s coupled with the fact that things constantly change at the monastery as well – the cutlery place can move or the washing up is being done slightly differently, & so on.
    I also found the article relating to being older & less healthy useful & will show it to a friend who has Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. Being less than 100% well is an amazing teaching. I was very grateful for the teaching I have received over the years about this when I was ill myself recently as I avoided getting into to too much struggling against the illness. Reverend Mildred Laser taught me a lot when she spoke of her training with less than 100% health & I am still grateful to her.

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