Chapter 53: The reception of guests (paragraphs 5-6)

The kitchen to serve the superior together with the guests should be quite separate, so that guests, who are never lacking in a monastery, may not unsettle the community by arriving, as they do, at all times of the day.

(From para. 5 of Ch. 53 of Saint Benedict's Rule, trans. by Patrick Barry OSB, 1997.)

Though my home may not have two kitchens, I can still be inspired by the balance Benedict describes, between the coming and going of guests, and the calm and settled nature of the household. The key to balance, meditation teaches me, lies in being centered in the one true source.