"Mostly we grow by falling apart." - Mary Sharon Moore, spiritual director Today is the Feast of All Souls. I am heavy-hearted but filled with hope. Maybe because I am, in recent years, more attuned to death and mortality. It is one of the many treasures we have in Catholicism - to pray for the ... Read More
Holding On, Letting Go
They say hold on.They say let go.Tension - Release.Tension - Release.I've stood on the precipice Of life and deathFar too long - TarryingWorryingTeetering.Will I fallOr will I fly?There is no middle groundNo compromiseOnly yesOnly noWhat will it be this time? In holding on I find hopeBut in ... Read More
Endings and Beginnings
The perfect ending: Ben and I together, sharing a sunset or maybe a bottle of wine. It is a quiet moment, one of shared tranquility, and it is in the silence that I am struck by the fact that things have shifted, and we survived some sort of storm. I will smile and reach for Ben's hand, then say, ... Read More
Moving from Trouble to Overcome
It was an ordinary work day for me back then. In my mid-twenties, I felt recently directionless - my only marriage prospect, a man I'd dated for four years, vanished from my life and started over with someone else. I had a college degree but no veritable work in my chosen field of psychology. The ... Read More
Death Creates Space Where New Life Flourishes
What are the tombs in my life? I have been pondering this since Holy Saturday - a day I used to believe got swallowed between the desolation of Good Friday and consolation of Easter Sunday. But I now know that Holy Saturday represents a powerful bridge between both desolation and consolation - ... Read More
Love Links Sorrow and Hope
I am awake early once again and it's Easter Sunday today. I glance out our back door. Dawn has not yet made its daily entrance; all remains dark, yet my heart fills with great hope in the midst of the black stillness. In many ways, it does not seem like Easter: no public Masses, no family ... Read More