There’s a mantra that’s been around for quite a while, and many people connect with it:  “I’m spiritual, but I’m not religious.” What does that mean? When I think of the term “spiritual,” I think of a one-on-one intimacy with the Divine. B...
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  Sometimes it’s good to make a really big mistake. Not because of the pain that it causes others, but because of the incomparable mercy and forgiveness that can follow. We get so complacent, sleep-walking through our lives, thinking we are doing okay. And if we see ourselves as living o...
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  Well, it happened again. My husband and I have two wonderful dogs, which we rescued from somewhere else. One is a beautiful cinnamon-colored Golden Retriever. She’s really lovely with her flowing locks, and she kind of knows it. Our other dog is an Australian Cattle dog. That dog is sm...
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  It’s been a very full two weeks. We’ve had many visitors and many wonderful moments in my home. There were three adult children including a pregnant daughter-in-law, three very young grandchildren, three dogs — two are ours and one was a visitor — and we were coordina...
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  We are waiting on a grandchild named Moses, and he’s coming at the end of October. Late one evening recently, his mom and dad arrived from North Carolina clutching photos from his ultrasound. Both parents-to-be were still in awe at seeing his head of hair on a high-tech television moni...
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Back in 2008, when I was studying to be a spiritual director at Monastery Immaculate Conception in Ferdinand, we had a special guest one weekend. Her name was Sister Olga Wittekind. She was a Franciscan sister who was also a clinical psychologist. She had studied at the Jung Institute in Zurich. He...
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  Can you imagine life without Scarlett O’Hara? Or Rhett Butler?   Remember the scene in “Gone With the Wind” when Scarlett’s green eyes spotted the expensive, plush curtains hanging in the windows of her family’s plantation? Then, before you could whistle &#...
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  In a few days, I will celebrate the 40th anniversary of coming to live here in southern Indiana. Forty years ago, I was 23 years old and hoping for a better life. My boyfriend at the time, soon to be my husband, drove me down country roads from Bloomington, Ind., in his old crate of a car &#...
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  For years, the pope has held audiences on Wednesday mornings in St. Peter’s Square, which is in the heart of Vatican City. Back on May 13, 1981, Pope John Paul II was passing through the square for the start of his weekly audience when he was shot by a 23-year-old assailant. He taught...
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  There are two phrases that I have been told never to use. If only . . . And what if . . . The first phrase, “if only,” calls to mind impossibilities. We can’t change the past, even if we wish really hard. The second phrase, “what if,” opens the door to fear of t...
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