the thread of Love

A couple of months ago, I decided to cancel my YMCA membership. I found that I was going less than I thought I should and I felt guilty every time I road past it: I also figured it was a good time to save a little money. But when I checked my bank statement last…

A visitor bearing gifts

Several days ago, I found out that someone close to me had betrayed me in a way that quite literally sent me into shock. For hours, my body shook and my heart felt like it would explode. Later that same night, as I tried to sleep but found it impossible…thoughts about the hurtful event felt…

loving the mystery

  Last Thursday, I drove by a house that almost took my breath away. I parked my car and walked down the old tree-lined street, from the house to downtown Burlington, imagining what it would be like to call this home. I’ve been looking at houses around the area for several years, but none have…

What will I do today?

“I arise in the morning torn between a desire to save the world and a desire to savor the world. This makes it hard to plan the day.” E. B. White   For much of my life, I’d felt a deep urge to help others…but it never seemed like I was doing enough. I believed…

Everything I need is right here, right now

"It may be that when we no longer know what to do, we have come to our real work, and when we no longer know which way to go, we have begun our real journey." Wendell Berry   I came home on Wednesday afternoon to find our cat, Noah, barely moving. Noah is a very…

goodbye to a limiting way of thinking,…hello to a friend

I've been wanting to write this story for a while, and finally I am. I first met Maud Maynard in 2009, but I'd heard about her, and had been briefly introduced to her, in 2002... but I didn't want to have anything to do with her. Not because she wasn't a perfectly nice, possibly interesting…

Our deep and loving connection

A couple of months ago, I asked my friend, Sister Madonna Buder, to keep me in her prayers for an issue that I was having difficulty turning over. She replied that she would love to pray for me, and as a matter of fact was competing in (yet another) triathlon the following Saturday and would…

New beginnings

Thank you everyone for the blessings and wonderful wishes for Tom and Lindsay's wedding. It was better than I could have imagined,... in every way (and I will be posting a picture when I get them). Possibly every family has a couple of members who are not easy around each other, and I am no…

Something truly human: choosing love

Last week I pulled a comfy, old, cat-scratched chair outside, and put it on my tiny porch. Having it there makes opening the door a challenge, but this isn't the door that we use most of the time anyway. After I make coffee and feed the cats, I come out here with my cup of…

The open door of intuition: The Spirit of Truth

Have you ever just known that something was right? Even when it didn't make sense? Even when there was no way that it was possible? And have you ever held your belief anyway; persistently turning away from those voices of doubt and reason (the voices that were really in your own mind, but seemed to…