A sterile life.

I drove a lot today. From here to Elizabethtown to Ephrata (named from the biblical Ephrata which means purt' near Bethlehem) and then back to here. A lot of driving. A lot of weird roads. Driving from south to north is easier for me because I feel like I am navigating on the map. As if I'm sitting on the map. I had a clear vision of every direction I turned today because we went from south to north the same way I envision a map in my head. I saw the Ephrata Cloisters today. These folks had a sterile life. They were celibate...didn't help the cause much I guess. They slept only 6 hours per night. Waking at 12midnight to assemble for prayers for 2 hours and then if Christ didn't return that night, they'd go back to bed and wake at 6am and do it all over again. They slept on 18" wide wooden benches and had a block of wood for a pillow to keep luxurious sins from over powering them. They ate only one meal a day and spent much day in prayer. I'm pretty sure I could live like this if I could have a decent bed and anything else but a block of wood for a pillow. It's fascinating to see this precocious slice of life still preserved in a very simple way.