I HAVE BECOME COMFORTABLY NUN

Written June 11, 2013

I have been visiting Episcopal Convents on a regular basis for about 14 years, hoping to discern whether I was really being called to religious life or if it was just another one of my crazy countercultural ideas.  For many years I went twice a year to St. Mary's Retreat House, which sits right behind the Mission in Santa Barbara, to see the Sisters of the Holy Nativity.  I also visited the Community of the Transfiguration in Cincinnati and the Society of St. Margaret in Boston.  In the meantime I also met monks from the Order of the Holy Cross, Society of St. Francis and the Society of St. John the Evangelist in my various church activities and travels, and in every encounter with every Monk and Nun I asked the same question: "What is it like?" 

The Different Ones

“Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree,

it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.”   ― Albert Einstein

When I was a little kid, my sister Autumn and I used to watch reruns of The Twilight Zone and yes, I am aware of the fact that it is not exactly suitable viewing for children under 7 years of age but hey - it was the 70s and kids could watch 20 uninterrupted hours of harmful TV and nobody cared.  Mine and Autumn's young, anxious, paranoid minds soaked up every episode of The Twilight Zone, and we were thrilled to discover that Rod Serling had more fantastic terrors in store for us with his other creepier and more disturbing show - Night Gallery.  Even the opening credits of that show scared the bejeezus out of me and Autumn.  There was an eyeball, and some sort of alien, and some groovy and menacing picture frames.  We probably had 22 years of nightmares just from watching the opening of that show, and we loved every minute of it.