New Milestones

I can’t imagine being anything other than a Kansas Monk. In the past, I imagined myself being many things other than a monk: a linguist, a lawyer, a diocesan priest. But my imagination has always been in Kansas. I’ve lived my whole life here, and other than the four years I spent in school out east, all the most significant moments of my life have been shaped by its people and places. I’ve gotten to see and learn about almost every corner of the state. I was born in the middle in Great Bend, grew up in the southwest in Lakin, went to college in Lawrence, worked in Wichita, spent time with my siblings while they were in college at Pittsburg State. Now I’ve made a solemn vow of stability here in Atchison.

My clearest memories are outdoors, hunting, fishing, and exploring at home and at my grandpa’s farm. The plants and animals I found captivated me: wide plains of sagebrush, yucca and prickly pears inhabited by herds of mule deer, prairie dogs and maybe an antelope if your glance was quick enough to keep up. To someone just passing by, it may all look the same, each square mile the same as the last. But that person doesn’t know about the clump of thick-trunked cottonwoods on the pond dam where we camped, or the cattails in water so shallow the carp almost knock over the canoe, or the sand pit dug out by the road crew and now growing prickly pears and coneflowers. They’re not just plants, but markers on a landscape of memories.

I’m making new memories in a new place, and exploring the land here has erected new milestones. While I grow in the monastic life, I set down roots in this place. Hiking up and down the bluffs with our dog, I discover a landscape so close and yet a world away from where I grew up. Who knew there were ferns in Kansas? And bluebells and lilies and may apples. So too, treading through the ups and downs of my monastic life, I discover a new landscape within myself, so close and yet a world away from where I grew up.

Br. Karel Soukup has been a monk of St. Benedict’s Abbey since 2014. Coming to the Abbey from Lakin, Kansas, Br. Karel has a passion for the arts and has been producing works in a variety of media including photography, metalwork, painting, and woodwork. To see Br.

Karel’s work and more see his website: cloistercraft.com.