Reflections on the Woodshed Year

For so much of the year I was laid up with an inexplicable knee injury, followed by a cancer scare. I suffered choking anxiety and severe depression. It seemed like nothing was happening. Certainly nothing good.

The Couch in the Jordan River

The couch in the Jordan River took me by surprise. No, it was worse than that; I felt insulted. From … More

The Starlight in My Soul’s Dark Night

Dark nights happen to some and not others, and only God knows why. St. John of the Cross called it a holy experience. Tell that to my priest, I wanted to say. Tell it to my husband, who still mourns the “nice Christian girl” he thought he married.

The Church Inside Myself (That I Didn’t Know Was There)

Meditation is one of those things that has always been for other people. Patchouli-toothpaste white people with rustic-but-pricey cedar furniture and mandala wall hangings. People who “study” Japanese cooking. People with gurus and lots of time on their hands.