One day deep in the bitterest, chilled Duldrums Of Winter,
back in my earliest days as a pilgrim of dirt,sand and cobbled paths
That I happened upon a monkly Friar,
and it was as stopping to greet this fellow traveler,
an Avowed and Monastic Holy Man in his own right,
That I noticed with mounting consternation and Horror,
that in the dread middling freeze of this wet miserable Season,
A Season I dare recall as one of the most stormed' and icy
That I can Remember of my days of seemingly endless plodding
upon those worn and ancient tracts.
So imagine my utter surprise and confusion
at seeing this wool garbed balding man walking SHOELESS,
trekking upon already dangerous Roads made Deadly,
by this whipping bastard Yule.
So it was that I came upon him and declared,
"Aye what brings A Man of the Cloth out into this frozen hell."
And LO!" said I." and near it is to the last setting of the distant winter Sun. that looming time of shade and dusk and you Brother with nary a stocking nor shoe upon your feet!"
It was at this time that the balding cherubic faced rose up to stare
at me from his thin thread-bare hood. and smiling he began to tell me
About the Blessing for Friars began by their patron to honor the memory of their churches founder.And so it was as I stood shivering in my many layers of clothes,that The Road Monk, seemingly unbent and unperturbed in his one layer of thin decaying wool began to chuckle quietly, and then, as if imparting a great secret he assailed me in a hushed and low voice"As A follower of the now cannonized Holy Saint Francis,the one whom had come from Assisi,I have learned one of the great mysteries of God."He continued."I have learned the greatest
blessing that can be gifted us by his heavenly wisdom."He paused a moment then, stamping the snow off of his unshod toes, and stopping continued."The best blessing of the Father unto the Son it was,and it is the same gift I now endure gladly in the Name of The Holy Spirit."He stopped.Then I piped in utterly flabbergasted." there is no thing blessed about this fouled Road Brother Monk."To which he then matter of factly replied."You see from what I have Gleaned from many Seasons of Life spent Praying and in study at the Monastery is thus"." Though perhaps to your way of thinking it may not seem fair,but I tell you now the Greatest Blessing the Father Gifted unto the Son Was His Suffering, and that is why you see me upon the Road
in this condition without complaint"."for what the greatest can suffer with dignity so can the lowest of us suffer and consider it a blessing to be walking so perfectly beside Him".I began again."that still explains not why you come upon this Road in such a condition"."
Why are you out here in this breathless cold,shoeless no less?"He studied my countenance a brief moment before finally Confessed his reasons."well,"he slowly began turning so red in the face I thought he might cry or rage, but then the tension melted away as he boomed with laughter."This is the time of year when the casks of dark ale we ceremonially brew are tapped".he paused again almost doubled over in roaring guffaws."you see, I maybe just might have had a wee bit much of the heady foamy stuff,and it being my turn to feed the sheeps their meager fare."he began again to chuckle." It turns out I was so F***in,bloody pissed that I forgot to close the stables up,and the sheep bloody well wandered off and with my Patron being the unavowed saintly protector of all Animals,you could see how I couldnt very well let one sheep astray let alone the whole cursed flock of them.So waking up shoeless and cold and brew-sick I did the only thing left for me I set out immediately without a moments wasting to range high and low for the wooly baggers. where you now find me humbly before you.I suppose I must have gotten used to the cold somewhere along the way after all".And here he paused one final time." this is the worst winter in living memory and I have had to walk all of it, for the day I left marked the first day of this winter and i have been out in it every step since"." And not a sight nor even the tiniest peep outta those little sheep,I hope THEY at least are warm and comfortable." And then with not another sound he began to walk on and away and for all I know he is still out there,shoeless,chasing that lost flock.......