San Niccolo Friary

Sojourning in Babylon Village, NY, at my brother Nicholas' apartment, to be known henceforth as San Niccolo Friary.

Slept well in the living room on my brother's air mattress and underneath the whirring breeze of the ceiling fan. Arose at six-thirty; meditation and morning prayer at my brother's meal table in the cool gray light of a new day. Mass at eight o'clock at Our Lady of Grace with about thirty parishioners assembled behind the sanctuary's main altar in the Marian chapel. Frozen pancake breakfast back at San Niccolo Friary while brother guardian is at work in the Town of Babylon. Reading the Sunday Times and thinking about the day trips Nicholas and I will be taking Wednesday through Friday. On our itinerary: Manhattan, namely the Lower East Side and the Tenement Museum; and Montauk, L.I., namely the Montauk Point Lighthouse Museum. We'll figure out when to go where as we study the weather. Now computing and corresponding, waiting for brother guardian to come home for lunch. Later, a haircut and stroll around the village; a look-see through a chapter or two of Nicholas' copy of The Passage of Power, Robert Caro's latest volume in The Years of Lyndon Johnson; and evening prayer and dinner in the village with brother guardian.

I have nothing that I have to do, only to listen to the Spirit and respond. I am free to be, free to pray, free to love.

There is nothing more I need to do to make ready for Kansas and California. Everything is ready. If I could, I would get on the airplanes tomorrow. Being with my first and forever brother: this alone keeps me from leaving now.