Latent Possibilities

Thursday, May 13, 2010

Blessed Monotony

Monks lead a peculiar way of life. They wake up early and go to bed early. They gather for prayer multiple times a day. They do not marry. They live in spartan isolated cells. And for the most part their work is of the menial kind: gardening, painting, baking bread.

I do not live like this. I’m always on the lookout for the next big thrill. And I see this pattern throughout my extended family. We are hungry—searching for some way of filling the holes within. We do this, I think, because we really believe one day we will find what we have been looking for. We believe we will discover that one high that will forever satiate our longings.

But I no longer believe this. That singularly satisfying experience or high does not exist. And to be honest, this realization saddens me. I grieve because of it, but it is true. And the monks in their blessed monotony are onto something.