My spiritual director keeps after me to set aside all practical considerations and lay out my vision for this elder phase of my life. So, for the record, here it is: To be in Africa, to write, and be with family.
There is probably something else. Continue reading
On this Fourth of July I would have been traveling home from Congo. I have emerged from the sharp grief over the trip that didn’t happen but I am still stuck in a limbo of boredom and puzzlement because I have no idea what I am going to do next. Continue reading
This is not my passport. It is my husband’s. I thought a passport was an appropriate image for this post but I don’t have mine right now. It is somewhere in the bowels of the DR Congo embassy in Washington, DC.
I hope I will get it back someday. I certainly will not have it by Wednesday, which is the day I was supposed to leave for the DRC. Continue reading
Photo by ABC 7 News, NY
We read the news of the Orlando massacre on our smartphones as we were driving back to the Midwest from a week of profound spiritual teaching and encounter in Maine. It brought the four of us in the car crashing down to earth-reality after a mountaintop experience. What happens when you come home is always a test of the validity of the spiritual experience you get in a retreat setting. Continue reading
The kind man who lets strangers hunt for mushrooms on our property had prostate surgery a week ago. He has given me permission to tell you this, and that he is doing fine. One tends to be shy about maladies that have to do with our more intimate body parts, like uteruses and breasts and prostate glands. Continue reading
It is morel season in Southwest Michigan. We have sometimes found these delicacies in our five acres of woods but not for the past several years, even in the spots where they had appeared before. You never know where they’re going to pop up. I found two big ones by the side of the road the other day when I was picking up trash. I washed them thoroughly and sautéed them in butter with asparagus. Yum. But we haven’t been persistent about combing every inch of our own woods for morels. Continue reading
I am so much less interested in writing these days. I squeezed out another blog post last weekend because I felt like I should keep trying to connect with my readers. But it was a struggle and I think I invented some “wisdom” in the process rather than trying to report something as accurately as I could, which is what the blog has been best for. Continue reading
It’s been a long blooming season for my daffodils but a tough one. They’ve survived at least three snowfalls in the last week plus wind and rain. After each battering I go out and rescue the ones that are absolutely facedown in the snow or dirt, put them in vases, and enjoy them inside by the woodstove–that is, if I get around to building a fire. Continue reading
A friend asked me to send her the details of our early-March trip to Italy. I thought it might be interesting to others as well, since our son, Jesse, did such a great job of planning our itinerary. Rich, interesting, beautiful, and not too exhausting, even though I took the extensive wandering with the help of a cane. Continue reading
I have been counting the days to a getaway trip to Italy with my family. However, the countdown has suddenly taken a different emotional tone. Instead of anticipation I’m feeling panic. Eleven days to go. Is it enough time? Continue reading
the practical mystic 