Weather, Walking, Wonderings

The Benedictine Sisters I’m living with this month, the Sisters of St. Gertrude’s Monastery, have their beginnings in Switzerland. Three young missionary sisters made their way to the Northwest United States and in the early 1900s, settled on the prairie in Cottonwood. Perhaps you can see why they felt somewhat “at home” when they settled in this part of Central Idaho.

I’ve been doing a lot of walking on the prairie. Hopefully, it’s getting me conditioned for the Camino, my next pilgrimage.  On Saturday morning, two of the sisters and I participated in the first of seven 5k walks sponsored by the Partnership for Healthy Communities, this one along the Salmon River. It is stunningly beautiful and it didn’t hurt that it was one of those beginning-of-spring cool and sunny mornings. 

Later that day, I decided to attempt a longer walk to the little town of Cottonwood, about three miles from the monastery. I set out with my non-working cell phone and $20, just in case. I walked about 2.5 miles and then decided to turn around rather than attempt to master the last big hill, down and then back up. Still feeling pretty good at this point, I started walking back toward the monastery.

The weather was good…until it wasn’t. They say if you don’t like the weather in Idaho, wait 10 minutes. And it’s true. Here’s a picture of the very nice weather in the middle of my walk.

                             And here’s a picture of me and the weather 10 minutes later. 

                                            Funny how the weather shifts the mood.

One of the oblates visiting the monastery for the weekend must have seen me trudging along in the rain – no rain gear, just my phone that doesn’t work and $20, just in case. Fred stopped to offer me a ride back to the monastery. Not wanting to give in or give up, still I was quickly drawn to the passenger seat of Fred’s car: "The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak.". He wasn’t judging me, but I was sure feeling badly about not “succeeding.”

Sunday, I tried again. I signed myself out and told a couple of sisters that I was going to walk to town and back since it was a sunny day and I had the time to give it a try. I was a bit better prepared this time with my backpack complete with water bottle, Band-aids, protein bar, non-working cell phone and $20. I walked out into the glorious sunshine and before I got to the first bend in the road, it began to snow. 

My knee-jerk response in many challenging situations is often to just keep going. And that was my initial reaction on Sunday. It was windy, cold and snowing; I was wearing a sweatshirt and telling myself to bear it and just keep going.

Then I remembered what I'm doing here. Balance in Benedictine spirituality. The middle way in Buddhism. I decided it was worth the effort to try something different, something sensible and gentle rather than extreme; something that could actually support my efforts and perhaps make the experience enjoyable or, at least, more doable.

I turned around and made my way back to the monastery, walked the four flights of stairs to my room and got my coat, gloves and a phone number in case of emergency. I stepped out of the monastery into, you guessed it!...the glorious sunshine. If you don’t like the weather in Idaho, just wait ten minutes!