Title: To Walk The World For A Spell

Author: hisgoodgirl

Disclaimer: All belongs to Joss.

Characters: Book, Kaylee, omc

Rating: G

Setting: Prior to and during the “Serenity” series pilot episode.

Cross-posted in LJ. Comments are sincerely appreciated. Thanks!

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To Walk The World For A Spell

It has long been my custom to record my thoughts in this journal, yet never have I taken time to recount how it was that I found myself as Shepherd to such an unlikely flock as my fellows. The road that led me here began long ago, and under very different circumstances…

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In the first months following the war, when I was heartsick and sore of body and soul, the stillness and peace I found among the Brethren renewed and healed me. In the wake of those terrible times, many men sought succor or strove to make atonement. Things apart from faith can draw a man to the contemplative life, and so it was with me.

Upon my knees in the late-night silence of the chapel, or planting potatoes in the abbey garden, I strove to make each act a mindful one. Every psalm or vigil or pot of soup, I offered up in expiation for all I had been part of.

The framework of discipline and order was not unlike what I had known before, and the formal schedule of waking and working and contemplation was comforting and familiar.

I was at first a guest, a pilgrim. The Brethren welcomed me unquestioningly, as they do all men that come seeking peace. As such, I was free to come and go, and while I might have continued wearing my worldly clothes, I chose instead to don the simple gray and white woolen robe worn by the Novice Brothers, those men who have pledged to walk in the way of God.

Along with other pilgrims, I was housed initially in the guest dormitory. We were encouraged to participate in the daily cycle of prayer and song, taking our meals in silence with the Brothers in the refectory.

The vigilance that had been