What do you pack when you visit a monastery?

I'm at M (for monastery) -11 hours... waiting for the last load of laundry to finish and facing the first spiritual challenge of the trip.  What do you pack?  The www.holycrossmonastery.com website suggests "Simplicity can be very helpful for spiritual growth, so don’t bring much." which is... um... unhelpful. 

What is "much"?

I think I do a reasonable job of unplugging when I'm up there (there goes that Benedictine humility on overdrive again - I'm quite proud of it).  I do "connect" a couple of times a day to blog, and my cell phone usually buzzes gently during one of the first few services before I remember to shut it off as I'm walking into the church, but I'm not one of the ones that's always out in the parking lot with the phone at my ear - usually. 

My real packing vice is reading material.  I've been known to take my Bible & prayer book, a kindle, another book for leisure, maybe a photoshop book or two (just in case I want to learn).  Of course, it all stays in the room... but still, you never know.

So, simplify!  OK.  The Kindle can stay home (I'm reading about the hunt for Bin Laden and a guide to online dating - I can wait a week before continuing those), I can leave all the other reading material at home as well (I assume I can find a Bible somewhere at a monastery - actually that's one of the features of the rooms) and I've been carrying the photoshop books around for ages without touching them.  That eliminates the bag of books and adapters, which also happens to be the heaviest.

I will throw Casey's "Living in the Truth: Saint Benedict's Teaching on Humility" in my suitcase along with my journal (yes, I keep a written journal with lots more than is in the blog).  I've tried Casey a couple of times, but I think reading that would benefit from longer periods of uninterrupted reading that I hope to have.

So suitcase, laptop and camera bag to carry into the guesthouse... boots and tripod left in the car for muddy walks and maybe a day looking around the Hudson valley.  Simple enough for now...

Oh yea, bugspray & sunscreen... bugspray for walking down to get close to the river through the tall grass, and sunscreen for sitting on my favorite Adirondack chair & reading.