The Rhythm of Discipline

Reset your life with this one weird monastery

I still don’t get the bells. Normally, one learns things by asking questions, but I’d like to get through at least one day not having to ask what every Orthodox toddler already apparently knows.

These pears look so happy right now. It’s a shame…

The bells I’m talking about ring before meals…and during. I was sure there’s a wonderfully esoteric name for the bell, but I asked Fr. Madai what the dinner bell thing was called the other day, he said, “The bell? It is called ‘bell.’”

On Day 1, I heard the distant tinny chime from precisely the opposite side of the big square monastery. It ricocheted  and rebounded all the way down the hard wood hallways around right angles and to my room. Er…my “cell.” I knew it must signify something, and it was a bell, so…I went to investigate. 

Turns out it was food. That was good. Having recently been cleaned out by the move, Super Fun Legal Stuff, and a road trip, I didn’t have a lot of that. Food, I mean.

There was a line of people there outside the dining hall, or “trapeza,” or “refectory,” (not just a bar back home), or “dining hall.” It was just a small handful of us. What I would soon think of as The Regulars. They’re a colorful bunch who I’d love to interview (and maybe will).