Sharing Meals Together

Dinner last evening was fabulous. We had whole wheat pasta with fresh mozzarella cheese, mushrooms, and olives. This was accompanied by a spinach salad, a rice salad and a quinoa salad. The monastery chef has trained at the CIA across the river and it shows - despite the fact that he was off duty yesterday - it turns out this fabulous food was all LEFTOVERS!

At dinner, I sat with three other retreaters and three brothers. (I noticed that most of the brothers are somewhat overweight... perhaps monastery food won't be as sparse as I expected.) Brother Larry was on my left (with a British accent) and brother Ron on my right (with the oxygen). Brother ____ (I really need to get better with names) sat across from me. It turns out that he is the technology guru and filled me in on how to access the wireless (just turn it on).

The dining room (again there is an official religious name for it) is a modern octagonal space that joins the 1902 guest house. It commands a wonderful view of the Hudson river. Several large round tables seating 8 people each seem just the right size to allow for conversations. I learned about my fellow companions and what they were here for, and got to know a bit about the brothers seated at my table. It's funny how our J2A lesson (other blog) spoke this morning about how there are no shortcuts to our faith journey and from talking to others, their path has been as varied as mine has been.

Breakfast this morning was done in silence. That was interesting. Most of us choose a place at a table facing the view. Of course we smiled at each other, but it was weird not being able to communicate. Again I felt a bit like an alien... I had to find my own way around the breakfast spread. I saw a couple of people had oatmeal, but it was nowhere to be found - depsite there being many fabulous toppings for it. So I settled for cold cereal, toast and yogurt.

Lunch is the feast meal for the day. That's when i'm told the chef really shows his stuff.