September 15, 2007
I’m trying to take one day per month to rest and meditate. The good book says it should be once a week.
The other day I went to up Mt Angel Abbey to rest and think and meditate. I wandered around mumbling hellos to hooded Benedictine students – before finding an old graveyard. In it were the usual markers – and then I found several very simple concrete crosses without names.
I laid in the grass, six feet above rotting corpses, and thought about these people. Serving their whole lives in a monastery, then finding a home in an unmarked grave. Humility. Service. Love. Eternal Rest.
I realize the faster I am traveling, the longer it takes for my mind to spin down. I had trouble clearing my thoughts over the course of 7 hours. Excitement! Action! Progress! Sustainability!
And what is the message of the green grave and the rotting cross?
Armadillos, opossums, and sloth’s spend about 80% of their lives sleeping.
Bill Gates
Sep 25, 10:06 AM