A year ago, during the first months of the pandemic, I filmed a video for my parish. A love letter really. To encourage believers and to remind myself of what was true and real.
I shared that even in the midst of isolation I hadn’t lost my joy.
Read MoreI have grown weary of doing good.
Of reaching out. Of pursuing. Of waiting. Of praying. Of standing firm.
Even if I do all these things I am still alone, tired and discouraged.
Read MoreIs it just me or does every mother feel as if we are just winging it? Motherhood is the ultimate "on the job training." We read all the books, ask advice from more "seasoned" mothers than us, but nothing could have prepared us for mothering this year. There isn't an issue of "What to Expect When Parenting Through a Pandemic."
Read MoreFor 40 essays, Diane Ackerman speaks to, about and on the subject of the sunrise. It is astounding how she can describe the beginning of the day in so many ways.
Read MoreEven in pain and sickness and exhaustion, my neighbor radiates God’s love to others. She feels Christ close to her, and in turn, we feel him close too. She is unafraid, for she truly believes what she has always said she believed.
Read MoreWell, I did it! I graduated! I now have an MFA in Creative Non-Fiction.
The highlight of my last residency was reading some of my work for my graduate reading.
Spring is here!
I know it happens every year but every year I am flabbergasted by the gloriousness of it all. I want you to know that it is not wasted on me. I see it all and I want to say “Thank you!”
Read MoreSt Paul was on house arrest for 2 yrs. Sound familiar? And yet, he chose joy. I look to him for inspiration during this seemingly, never-ending lockdown.
Read MoreRembrandt’s “Christ Crucified Between the Two Thieves” brings Christ down among the spectators. Soldiers, horses, mockers and followers are pressed upon each other. Horses seem to spill upon the crowd.
Grievers hold their bodies in wretched poses. The two thieves flank Christ on either side. They are within speaking distance of him, not shouting distance, as I imagined.
Read MoreI wrote this as a love letter to the Church I am so mystically connected to.
Read MoreGod shows us that anger is necessary to move away from that which is unholy and turn our eyes toward him. When our eyes are on God, we find grace and mercy and love and kindness there. Not more anger.
Read MoreDeath has been at the forefront of our thoughts for the past year, no matter how we try to push it away. My review for Christiana N. Peterson’s Awakened By Death for U.S. Catholic.
Read MoreI’ve missed kindness this past year. We were stingy with our kindness, saving it mostly for those who clearly shared our values. And when I say “we,” I mean “me.”
Read MoreMy 11-year-old son asks the best questions. …The other night at dinner he asked, “If you could ask God anything, what would you ask?” Our normally verbal family was silenced for a few moments
Read More“Just when I think St. Clare is too lofty for me, when I think she couldn't understand what the past year has been like for me and others, I read of the time she was infirm and bedridden. She could not join her sisters for Christmas midnight Mass, so she was miraculously treated to history's first livestreamed Mass on the wall of her room. Yes, she is the patron saint of television.”
Read MoreFour years ago, we were in Mexico City for the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord. I finally got around to writing about it for Busted Halo . Read about it here.
"The snow is untouched. No footprints lead in or out. Have they danced through a snowstorm? Have they been there forever?"
Read MoreJamaica Kincaid’s A Small Place is a small book of big truths. Kincaid tells the story of the small island of Antigua in the British West Indies; the colonialism that brought them to the place they are in and the difficulties pulling themselves out now that freedom has been attained.
Read MorePaul's letter to the Romans gives us a message of hope and love in 2021.
Read MoreWhen I was young and somehow given the chance to stay home alone, I loved to sit in the quiet house and hear what I could hear. It was strange to me that even without my sisters playing or my great-grandmother’s television blaring, the house was not quiet. I could hear the hum of the refrigerator and the lull of the cars on the main street beyond ours — even our house crackled as it settled.
I wanted to get beyond those sounds to hear silence. I wondered what silence even sounded like and what I’d find there.
Read MoreThrives on moments where storytelling, art and faith collide.
