Sunday, March 31, 2019

Dream of a Weekend Cabin by Clear Creek

It might take a couple years for our budget to allow it, but I’ve been contemplating for a year now the idea of a weekend cabin out by Clear Creek monastery.   I’d just need a half acre.  When the time is right, will put out feelers out there to see if someone would part with a little bit of land.   Closer to the abbey the better.  It’s okay if it’s very wooded and rocky.  Would just to need to be next to or near a road.   Anyone out there reading this, would you take $2K for a half acre, or even smaller?  I’m thinking to put a small barn on it from Home Depot or Lowes, or a barn builder closer to CC.   There’s one such company on the north side of Hwy 412 east of T-town as you take what the monks call the “north route.”

$2K for the land.  $3K for the barn.  Maybe $500 to outfit it. Can’t beat a weekend getaway cabin, nestled in the beautiful Okie lower foothills of the Ozarks, an hour from Tulsa, and just a jog from dozens of traditional Catholic monks celebrating daily Traditional Latin Mass, and the Divine Office sung in Gregorian chant.

Can’t imagine anything more idyllic and simultaneously practical.  $5500.

A weekend getaway.  Camp base to hunt and fish (with permissions of CC land owners - like the monks).   Hermitage for a spiritual retreat.  Guys hangout.  Family home-away-from-home.  A bug out place in the event of the Great Chastisement (you never know).  The opportunities abound.

This all started with more frequent visits to the monastery for the Catholic Manshow campout, 2018 Workday, a quick half day retreat of sorts last Advent, and the 2019 Workday.  I think I blogged about most of those visits.  My inspiration was also watching a couple YouTube channels (beats the heck out Netflix these days with its increasing amounts of PC shows and ones that appeal more to our fallen natures) of men building/living in cabins in the deep woods.  Check out My Self Reliance and TA Outdoors.  This all just rekindled an old dream of a cabin, and one near CC, coupled with a recent gain in livelihood that would make such ventures prudent.

So on any winter evening I may be seen perched on my Okie armchair sipping hot cocoa (flavored with stevia) watching these channels, dreaming of the day soon I pull the trigger on this project.  I’d need to first find the land.  Plenty of trees, alive or fallen to the ground, would be a plus for firewood.
A nice view of some pasture land or distant hills would be nice.  Also a bit of a creek for running water would be another plus.  I’d think I could find a Catholic living within 5-10 minutes of the monastery with a bit of land they’d part with.  Would have to think of the best method of procuring such land.

The other task is finding a Home Depot or Lowes  that would deliver and assemble the barn on the land, given it’s a hilly, rocky area, far from the city. Maybe one in Tahlequah or Muskogee. Or the next time I’m out there check and see if there’s a closer business that sells barns.  The kind you see on the side of the highway, including little sheds with a front porch designed like a mini-cottage.

You can plan something like this too.  I’m thinking a barn, 12’x15’, with a couple windows.  Maybe a loft, built-in kitchen bench.  No electricity or running water.  Bring water, cooler, propane for a propane stove, some batteries.   A small wood-burning stove. A couple of beds doubling like couches,
with a multi-functional table between them.  Cast iron skillets hanging over a Coleman stove.  Plus an outdoor kitchen with grill, firepit, covered wood stash, and makeshift outddoor latrine.  May make a compost toilet, like I had made several for use by the group when attending a traditional Catholic pilgrimage (SSPX) once upon a time in the Philippines.  Much more sanitary than a hole. 

Let me know in the comments what you think?  Any other things you’d add to the project?  Live in Oklahoma and would like to use the future cabin too?

Saturday, March 23, 2019

Fighting Dopamine Addiction. With a Campfire

Facebook, Twitter, Internet Forums, Blogs, Netflix, X-box.
All in front of an artificial 2D screen, with little real connection to persons or society.  We’ve become hooked by the Dopamine peddlers.  

The hormones that regulate mood, like dopamine or serotonin, have become the #1 drug that everyone—except maybe the Amish—are addicted to by contemporary culture.  

And getting you’re minute-by-minute Dopamine fix doesn’t stop with the smartphone, computer, or TV screen.   

It comes from looks and gestures of approval for looking athletically fit, smartly dressed, head held high, smartphone in hand, driving the latest model of car.  Or just the inner satisfaction you’re seemingly pleasing and appeasing the masses with your contemporary six figure, two income lifestyle. 

Diabolical narcissism turning us into Zombies. 

It’s like living in a Hollywood movie like The Matrix.  Our divorce from creation and Creator, from a realist life whereby we “act in accord with nature and reason,” has left us already in social ruins the effect being a break down in mental health.  

If you’re a contemporary urbanite, by definition you suffer from chronic anxiety and depression.  And we all are affected the more we allow ourselves to get sucked down this whirlpool.   

I’m as guilty and affected as any trad Catholic with a smartphone and a TV.   A stressful day at work to me is not from the actual work itself, which is life sustaining, but from the endless toxicity of the modern workplace and marketplace.  The mental torture of crazy drivers in 5pm traffic is just icing on the cake.   

It’s an unhealthy coping mechanism then to soothe your emotions by endlessly checking your phone throughout the day for texts, emails, notifications, weather, news, etc, etc.  

I cannot imagine how this vicious cycle of modern stimulation to elevate mood hormones can be sustainable.  Addictions to computer games, or trendy language like the now ubiquitous use of “awesome” or an exclamation point at the end of every text message, these now constant variables will only result in month by month, year by year, decline in mental, physical, and spiritual health.  
The dystopian, post-apocalyptic future is here, minus in the US anyway economic collapse or civil war.   Most now are either wolves or wolves in sheep’s clothing.  The proverbial sheep, people trying to be God-fearing, honest, humble, and like Christ, are in the vulnerable minority.  Everywhere. 

If I had a teenager, I wouldn’t allow them to have a smartphone or FB account.   Or play hours a day of video games.  I might do a Wii for physical games in the home during bad weather, on occasion, but not on demand daily hours on end in front of any screen.  

But I’d be a hypocrite if I said I was living as strictly as my inner convictions dictate for parenting.  This winter was especially tempting for me, as it usually is, to flop in front of the TV or impulsively pick up my smartphone.  I chalk it up to getting my own Dopamine fix because of shorter, colder, and  
dimmer days.  

And so with the change in Daylight Savings Time (which should be abolished imo), the beginning of Spring, and warmer weather, we took a short camping trip just east of town on the Verdigris River in Buffalo Landing state park, for no other reason than to get our Dopamine fix the way nature intended. 
By being outside, breathing fresh air, hearing actual wildlife, staring into the soulful flames of a campfire, and looking up at the constellations.  Realism being the best antidote for modern stress.  Something I am more and more mindful that I am in need of. 

Here is a video (yes I took on my smartphone) of our campfire.  I burned a dozen year old logs which made for a blazing fire keeping us warm from just after dinner until midnight.  You can hear bullfrogs in the background, and Peanut my dauchshund moaning a bit as she tried to get warm on my lap under a blanket.  And so as I sat there sipping Jim Beam recalling stories from the past, these are also the thoughts that came to mind which I put down here.  It sure beat the artificial image of the Netflix fireplace I sometimes use at home.  Enjoy the Realism (no exclamation point needed).



Saturday, March 9, 2019

Day trip to Pawhuska. Home of The Pioneer Woman. & “Cathedral of the Osage”

Joseph Pieper, classical Thomistic writer on subjects like Christian culture, defined the true nature of work as “not being at leisure so that we may be at leisure.”  In other words, the purpose of human work is ultimately holy leisure which contemplates divine things.  Such then was our aim when taking a day trip out to Pawhuska, OK west of Bartlesville.  Home to the famous Food Network star Ree Drummond and Immaculate Conception Catholic Church, itself home to some of the most revered stained glass windows in the US.   This destination is a must visit for an Okie Catholic family seeking wholesome recreation and country living inspiration.

After all, practicing Catholic families seek more sane forms of re-creation than our artificial video game culture.



We like taking little road trips a few times a year to small towns in eastern Oklahoma, to check out their local churches, museums. restaurants, and sites of attraction.  We’ve probably done about 20 of these outings in the last 5 years, each one proving to be a fruitful and frugal adventure.  So this one was no different, marking pretty high up the list.   I had some work to do in the morning, so we got a later start. We packed tuna fish sandwiches, chips, cheese, and seltzer water for a picnic lunch once we arrived in downtown Pawhuska.  As you leave Tulsa going north on Interstate 75, the land already starts to open up into plainly beautiful rolling ranch land, preparing you for the wide desert-like landscape that surrounds this town.

There is a spiritual solace in that kind of environment devoid of urban materialism.

Our first destination—The Prairie Woman Mercantile, which is Drummond's own creative business injecting life into the town.  A mercantile-style store featuring her signature kitchenware, a restaurant showcasing her famous Southern cooking recipes, a bakery, and hotel.  The place was a combination of simplicity, high quality, warmth, and authenticity.  Tightening our belts as of late, we opted after our parking lot picnic  for pecan cinnamon rolls in the second floor bakery cafe.  The Amish couldn’t have made it better.  There is something to be said for the value of producing things that have high quality, to nourish the spirit.  Even from a cinnamon roll made with bourbon, brown sugar, and molasses. 

I love quality over quantity.

After a stroll through shops selling cowboy apparel and art, and stopping to pet a horse used to give carriage rides, we took advantage of the free vouture given at the Mercantile to tour the Drummond ranch and guest Lodge west of town.  It was a surreal experience.  100,000 acres, 9,000 head of cattle, as far as the eye could see.  I remarked to the tour guide (a retired cowboy gentleman) at their hill side Lodge, which Drummond uses to film her cooking shows and as a family guest house, that looking across their land it reminds me of a vast desert. He responded "It's funny you say that.  The Osage Indian tribe that has lived here since before it was a state called this land 'The Great Desert."

This same cowboy also related how the local Osage tribe converted more to Catholicism than Protestantism.   I found that interesting as an Okie Catholic.

The panoramic view, and the Lodge itself, was really surreal.  An ultra-plain, rugged kind of beauty, but absolutely realist environment.  At a distance you could see the Drummond homestead, very modest considering my estimate her husband's land alone is worth at least $200,000,000, and her reported assets around $8,000,000. 

Their life and livelihood then is a good example of maintaining authenticity in our commercialized society.

So we needed to get back to town quickly to see Immaculate Conception church's famed stained glass windows before the sun started going down.  Entering the church I could see why it had the nickname "Cathedral of the Osage."  Stunningly beautiful stained glass depictions of the life of Christ, with an amazing natural brightness.  And this was around 5:30 pm on a cloudy day, which made me wonder what it must look like at noon on a sunny day.  The church itself was built in the traditional American gothic style -- high vaulted ceilings, large statuesque stations of the cross, a majestic marble high altar, and two similar smaller side altars on either side, large statues of the Sacred Heart and the Virgin Mary, and a huge, dark-wood confessional in the back (which I took advantage of, the priest hearing confessions).



Incidentally, this was the church where just last Fall the young pastor hosted the Fraternity of St. Peter parish to celebrate their parish's anniversary by offering there the Traditional Latin Mass, followed by a pizza dinner catered by none other than the Prairie Woman's wood oven pizzeria. This little six hour excursion was definitely rejuvenating  and something I recommend for all Okie locals.  In the end we were able to contemplate God's truth and goodness in His creation and in the simplicity of rural life.

Deo gracias. 

Sunday, March 3, 2019

Clear Creek Workday 2019. Cold, Productive, and Testosterone-Boosting

I can think of no better tonic for declining levels of testosterone than participating in Clear Creek Abbey’s annual Workday every March.  Dozens of men (mostly men) divided into work crews building fences, chopping up firewood, moving heavy forest debris, doing carpentry projects, etc, no less in very cold damp weather, after a 6:45 am Tridentine Low Mass in the monastery crypt chapel, all in a spirit of prayer and sacrifice for Christ and His Church, is enough to inject a heavy dose of Catholic masculinity in the modern 21st century, self-distracted man (which I am a good example of).  

There is something spiritually renewing to stack large logs of firewood while looking across the section of land you’re assigned to while a monk nearby can be seen tending sheep. The same monk priest who a couple hours before offered the Holy Sacrifice of Christ the Lamb at a side altar in the crypt chapel.  In the simplicity of this established local Okie Church tradition, the Clear Creek Workday, which typically draws men, church groups, and Catholic scout troops from several states, are multiple layers of poetic spirituality to be discoverred.  From the quiet balance of prayer and work exemplified in the life of the monk, i.e. Ora et Labora, shared by laity for one day, to the unity experienced with the Creator by helping restore the garden of His creation, to the Christian friendship expressed between the workers and monks, the annual Clear Creek Workday always proves to be something especially edifying. 

Yet I must admit for me the day began begrudgingly being woken up by my alarm clock at 5 am, which is a strongly unnatural hour for someone of my temparement on a Saturday morning. Definitely a little Septuagisima season, i.e pre-Lenten penance to drive in the cold dark an hour east, part of the journey along winding rocky roads, to make it for the utterly silent wee hours Low Mass that typifies Clear Creek monastery. And I made it into the pew in the nick of time before a flow of young monk priests came out of the sacristy to each offer simulateously the truly Extraordinary Form of the Mass. 

Later wide-eyed and spiritually refreshed, I met a friend who needed to first milk his cow, living just a few miles down the country road.  Minutes later I was helping him tear off an armful of hay from one of those big round barrels of hay, feeding the cow, then for the first time in my life milking a cow.  Warm.  After warming ourselves in front of his fireplace discussing the merits of country living, it was off to the Workday to join one of the crews of maybe 20 men and teenage boys chain sawing and chopping up trees for firewood, stacking the wood, piling the branches into huge piles for burning, and then tending to the fires.  Chain saws, axes, and work gloves were our tools.  A visual of a towering medieval-style monastery across the woods, surrounded by hills and pastoral landscape, also helped boost our resolve. 

This year for me I took a very modest pace, with lots of little rest breaks, and only worked half a day. Last year as I reported here I did a whole day and was so sore afterwards I felt like I needed to be in a body cast.  But we did receive a medicinal reprieve at noon, care of volunteers, many of them women and teenage girls, for a sit down barbecue lunch outside the guest cabin.  Pulled pork, brisquet, cole slaw, baked beans, rolls, several desserts, and ice tea, plus connecting with like-minded Catholics for an hour of socialization, were the healing balm. 

Truth be told I was still quite tired and sore later.  But hard physical work when it is in God’s service is in the end something invigorating, life affirming, and motivating.  The experience motivates me more and more to imitate the monks, who are imitating Christ, by offering their daily work and prayer as a sacrifice to save their soul.  I plan to return to the Clear Creek Workday for years to come, as I hope you will too.