St Clements, in the wheat paddocks

Some time ago, I attended an "Art for the Soul" at St Clements, Galong, near Goulburn in NSW, Australia.  It's a monastery run by the shared ministry of the Redemptorist congregation and the Sisters of St Josephs.  The buildings are beautiful and date from the early 1800's.  For those reading from other countries, this will not seem old to you, but in Australia, this is nearly as old as our white nation! (Indigenous peoples lived here for thousands of years before white settlement in 1788)

The Monastery is now the home of retired Sisters and Priests, and is also used for conferences and Retreats for Christian people.  It's set in the rolling hills of the surrounding countryside.  Wheat and Canola crops stretch away to the horizon in all directions. 

There is a cemetery on the property.  It's where the monks and priests from the Monastery are buried. 

 When I was on my Creative Writing retreat, I walked one morning to the Cemetery.  It was in October, which is our spring, and when the Joe Blakes start to wake up from their winter somnolence.  We have some very poisonous and deadly snakes in Australia and because the Monastery is in farming country, we are really trespassing on their habitat. 

 

So I was aware as I made my way down and up the lane to the graves, that I would need to keep an eye out for the dreaded red-bellied brown snake, or the black snake, or even the deadly copper-headed snake. 

 

I was a little scared, but I grew up on a farm and know that if I encountered a snake, it would try it's best to get away.  But you just need to be aware that if you accidentally step on one, or try and corner it, you can be bitten. So I wondered what I would do if I was bitten when I was on my own, some 5kms away from the buildings.

 

For a moment, I felt fearful and exposed and alone.  Then I thought of all the people who live all their moments with this kind of fear, multiplied many times, and from many sources.  People who live in refugee camps;  people who live where violent militant armies hold power;  people who must go miles through bush and unsafe places, to get water or food; people who live in unsafe neighbourhoods.

 

I thought of how unsafe they must feel every day from threat of violence or capture or oppression.

 

I prayed for their safety.