monastic living:
Someone left a 10lb. Ghiradelli milk chocolate bar in one of the monastery kitchen pantries. Did you get that? It’s a ten pound bar of chocolate! We’re about halfway done with it, chipping at it after meals. I’ve been avoiding it because gnawing on slabs and chunks of chocolate doesn’t really appeal to me. Today, one of the monks asked me to do the honors of chipping away at it, so I got the thing out, chipped a few slabs off, nibbled a bit, he nibbled a bit, and then I put it away. He asked, “Where’s the bowl of chocolate nuggets?”. I didn’t know that was in my job description, but in any case I went back to the pantry to get the chocolate and put the chunks and slivers into a bowl. As I picked up the chocolate, a light shone down on me from the heavens as I realized, there in the pantry, that right in front of me was about fifteen jars of peanut butter!

Fast forward to image of me leaving the dining hall a little hyper and listening to my own racing heartbeat.

I love peanut butter, I can’t begin to tell you. I love peanut butter! Mix chocolate and peanut butter and don’t talk to me, leave me alone, “Can’t talk, eating”. I probably mentioned this before, but one of the saddest stories I’ve ever heard was about Amina when she was young. She, too, loved peanut butter and one day ended up eating a whole jar of peanut butter. She got so nauseatingly sick afterwards that she hasn’t had a bite of peanut butter since. *sniff* Brings a tear to my eye.