Friday, September 23
I’ve been to the Abbey before – The Our Lady of the Mississippi Abbey just outside Dubuque, Iowa. I know what a tranquil place it is to retreat. Seven times a day those sweet nuns sing their prayers and anyone is welcome to go, sit in the little ‘side chapel’ and listen. You can’t see them; only hear them shuffle in, quietly sitting down and then the singing begins. This is my fourth time to visit and I never get tired of hearing them.
The Abbey grounds are also a great place for a hike! I like to think of it as the place where the “farm meets the forest,” since it is a working farm (the land is rented out not run by the sisters) complete with cows. Even the farmland seems to carry the same tranquility I feel when I sit in the chapel and listen to the singing. Good energy here!
So I drew from that energy and caught up the distance that I lost the day before when that storm kicked up in the middle of my hike by hiking all over the farm and up and down the dreaded “cardiac crusher” hill to the old stone farmhouse to my little room in the retreat house and back not once, but twice!
Another bodacious day along the way of my not so infamous “Walk in the Woods.”
Sounds like a great adventure, Nancy. It's been great to follow along in story and photos. Perhaps another book in the making?
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