Ode to the North Sea! Is the Silence of a Cistercians abbey something for you? Feeling yourself safe as a member of a big family.

Last week I told you about the upcoming w.e. at the North Sea and West-Vleteren. The Lebbe-family gathering on Saturday started at 11 am and we wanted to be on time and without stress so we decided to take the whole weekend. My grand children had a week off so we could start our w.e. on Friday morning. We were at destination at 2 pm, put on our bathing suits and left immediately for the sea.

The North Sea!

I love the North Sea! I love it's beaches with the tides and I love the sand dunes with their peculiar vegetation, the bumps and the pits that protects you from the fierce winds.

I love taking a walk on the beach when the wind is blowing full speed and the sand is giving your face an acupuncture treatment and your underwear is full of sand!

I love the myriad of seashells that the tides leave on the beach and the crushing and crashing sound they make when walking overthem, with each beach its own type of shells.

I love the  small pools of water that are left when the sea is withdrawing where I learned to float.

View of the sea at Oostduinkerke, Belgium

I love the never ending always rolling waves, an irresistible invitation to get in, play and have fun.

I love the view from a distance: the grey sea, the blue sky and the yellow golden sand!

I love the peculiar light that is hanging above the beach and sea, nowhere else can you have this light.

My daughter and grand children at
 Oostduinkerke, Belgium.

I love the endlessness of the view: look as far as your eyes permit, nothing obstructing your view.

And I did have my swim! despite the blowing wind and the coldness of the water. IF YOU WANT SOMETHING BAD ENOUGH, YOU CAN CONQUER THE OBSTACLES! NOTHING CAN HOLD YOU! My legs were red red red when coming out of the sea. I was with my daughter, she also had a swim and Filou, the dog was keeping watch over our belongings. That was so cute; he kept running small distances in every direction and always coming back to our pile of belongings.

West-Vleteren, a place to get to know yourself. 

On Saturday we left the sea behind and headed southeast for West-Vleteren, a small village near the French border. (You can read all about this Cistercians abbey in this previous post. and have a look at images here.)  We were a 20 minutes early for the service and the monastery chapel already was almost full so we had a seat in the front row.

The chapel of the St. Sixtus abbey behind the building.

The service finished we followed the others to the hall where the reception took place. There was beer and cheese, 2 eminently abbey products. At least a 100 persons were present with lots of young people and small children, the family is still growing. Belonging to a big, loving family gives you strength, makes you feel safe, gives you a sense and place of belonging.

People spilling out into the garden of
 St. Sixtus, West-Vleteren, Belgium

This little guy also feels safe on my brothers knees with my oldest brother, his grandpa next to him.

My eldest brother (r) with his grandson on
my except for 1 youngest brother (l) knees.

I had the intention to connect to members of the other family branch and one of my cousins who is into family trees introduced me to a couple of persons. One woman's mother was a cousin of my grand mother and it was funny to hear the stories she had heard from her mother about my grandmother; I got to know a to me unknown side of my grandma.

If you want to know who YOU are, if you want to touch your idea about yourself to reality, go to a place by yourself and stay for a couple of days. The Trappists cultivate stillness and ask the same of their visitors. The abbey has a guesthouse, open to men and women. Even a so closed community as Trappist monks is evolving and changing.

Nothing is more confronting than silence and being alone, just you and yourself! And if you give yourself a reading restriction, you'll learn still more. To be accurate, all sorts of stashed away feelings assault you, your ego gets a huge crush but you get a glimpse of what is underneath. And this gets you on a path to finding yourself again.



This posts is all about my feelings that have been stirred up this last weekend. I hope you can distill  something out of this that works for you. I hope YOU belong to a family where you can be you and feel safe to be you.

See you next week!