One day recently I awoke to a particularly lovely shot and felt such gratitude for the beauty available to us and the beauty I’ve been present to see. I’m on vacation with two of my daughters this week, so instead of giving you words to ponder, I’m offering some favorite images from my camera roll.

The California Redwoods can’t really be captured in an image, but here’s my attempt. I took this photo after making my husband pull the car over so I could get out and touch, see and smell them for myself. I’m in awe of the life these trees have seen.

As my husband and I took in the grandeur of Niagara Falls, I immediately understood the people who tried to go over the falls in a barrel. I just wanted to jump right in, despite the fact that I would have been immediately overpowered. Looking at this image, I feel the mist on my face all over again.

A photo of Turnip Rock in Michigan inspired my friend and I to visit. Based on what I’ve seen so far, Lake Huron might be the most beautiful of the Great Lakes. It offered clear water as far as the eye could see.

New River Gorge in West Virginia was carved by one of the oldest rivers in North America. We went there as a family on a pandemic vacation in 2020. My husband and I returned this summer for a hike and a view from above.

The shade of Beaman Park near my house is a regular spot for Luna and me. Even in the heat of a Tennessee summer, there’s some relief to be found amidst the trees and trails.

This is likely where I am as you read these words: in the sand on Dauphin Island. This little island is the beach closest to my hometown and it’s full of conscious and unconscious memories.

May you have time in the abundant beauty of nature this week.

Peace & Grace,
Shannon

P.S. I’ll be back next week with an update on my vacation reads.

Last week, my husband and I attended an event for some friends of ours who are missionaries in Prague. Before we heard about their work there, we were encouraged to think back to college and a professor who had an impact on us. As a few of us shared our answers, I was interested to note that responses largely fell into two categories: professors who challenged or professors who encouraged.

One attendee shared that his college English professor had challenged him to broaden his curiosity. He was told that he would be a better English student if he knew the history, the art, the other cultural influences that were going on outside the pages of the books he was reading.

I shared that my college ceramics professor made me feel safe to do something I’d never done and encouraged me to keep going even if I wasn’t ever going to be a great (or even good) ceramicist. Her classes were the first time I learned I could 1) make something with my hands and 2) do something because I enjoyed it, not because I was good at it.

What adults shaped your own life experience? Did they challenge you? encourage you? something else?

Perhaps we all need a blend of encouragement and challenge, but I find I can receive and hear a challenge best when I’m with someone who makes me feel safe. If I’m challenged by someone I don’t know well, I’m likely to become defensive and/or brush off their challenge. But if I’m with someone who makes me feel seen and known, I can hear a healthy challenge for what it is: opportunity to grow, not critique of who I am as a person.

I’m personally more encourager than challenger. I’m more likely to see and name the good things I see in someone than to call out a place they could be better. Perhaps this is how I’m made, perhaps it is weakness.

How do you receive challenges? How do you receive encouragement? Which are you more likely to offer those in your life?

I wonder if my inclination to encouragement is what makes me a good spiritual director. I love the opportunity to sit with people and affirm their experiences of God. Nothing is too weird for a direction session. Noticing God in everything from a ladybug to a cardinal to a river is not only valid, but valued. My directees never need to preface their experience with the phrase “this may sound weird, but…”

That’s not to say I don’t gently challenge when the Spirit prompts me to do so. This is especially true when I hear someone say something about themselves in a harsh tone. That might prompt me to ask whose voice that is — “Where’s that coming from?” If there is one thing I long to challenge, it’s the notion that God judges more than loves.

What blend of challenging and encouraging shows up in your day to day life? How is this a reflection of your own experiences and inclinations?

Subscribe now

If you’re enjoying what you’re reading here, please take a moment to like this post. It helps boost visibility on Substack.

Book Corner:
What I’ve Been Reading Lately

via library loan:
The Fountain by Casey Scieszka
Tuck Everlasting for grown-ups: If you’ve ever sat around a fire talking about what you’d do if you could live forever, this is the book for you. Vera and Eli are siblings who have lived for two hundred years. Eventually they each head back to their hometown and run into each other. It’s interesting to view history through their eyes but my favorite scene was the one where Eli realizes that two centuries as a woman is a different story than two decades as a man. This book is engaging, easy to read and a testament to the value of mortality.

Into the Blue by Emma Brodie
There’s a lot I liked about this book. AJ and Noah felt like a couple I could root for and their chemistry felt authentic. The behind the scenes look at two young adults finding acting made for good reading. I also liked that this book dealt with questions we don’t typically ask about whether it’s better to live a life we’ve planned that minimizes pain or a life that’s beautifully unpredictable. Here’s the rub: I wanted more depth in how the author addressed the way a couple deals with a terminal, degenerative disease diagnosis. A few sentences on the very last page did not satisfy me that they were actually working through this as a couple. All that being said, this is two books in a row that have made me think about and value the brief and glorious truth of how short our lives really are. May we live them fully.

And what I’ve been watching:
The Pitt, Season One, HBO
My daughter’s friend signed into her HBO account on our Roku, so I’m using that as an opportunity to binge this series I've heard so much about. Last week I watched the entire first season, mostly because I could not stop with each episode leaving me hanging. I completely understand the praise for this show. What a moving look at the weight of being a doctor, a nurse or anyone who cares for others vocationally.

I Will Find You, Netflix
I found this on a list of the best shows to watch this summer, but couldn’t make it through one episode. I’m good at suspending disbelief, but this was a bridge too far. I used to find Netflix originals pretty good — is it me or has the quality seriously degraded?

Five Star Weekend, Peacock
This series was also on that list of best summer shows I found and it’s far better than I Will Find You. It’s the antithesis of The Pitt because it’s pure fluff. Based on an Elin Hildebrand novel, it’s set on Nantucket and the soundtrack alone is evidence that I am the target audience. I’m using it as a palate cleanser between seasons one and two of The Pitt.

Take a moment to pause here:

• Where do you feel God encouraging you on your path right now? Who is God using to provide that encouragement?

• Where do you feel God challenging you to grow or change? Who is God using to show you that?

May we have sensitivity to giving and receiving challenge and encouragement.

Peace & Grace,
Shannon

I spent the fourth of July moving my youngest daughter out of her apartment and driving westward home. I didn’t wear red, white or blue. I didn’t eat a single hotdog. Not a firework was glimpsed. And all of that was OK with me. It felt complicated to celebrate Independence Day this year because of the way the holiday was coopted to represent a certain kind of patriotism — one I would call White Christian Nationalism. A tiring and quiet Saturday doing work that needed to be done felt like the best use of my time — and an easy way to distract myself.

Thankfully, Sunday’s service reminded me of how I do want to live and the America I want to celebrate. I didn’t have to wait long for God to snag my attention. Our second song was “Put Not Your Hope in the Nation:”

If the title hadn’t caught my attention, the words would have: “The heart of God is forever home to all the poor and weak.” It’s good news to me that this is the heart of God because I am poor and weak. I need a solid and safe place to rest. I long for our country to be a place that lives up to the words, “Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free…1” But if that does not feel true now, I will cling to God’s words about the refugees, the widows, the orphans. I will remember that God does not forget those the world forgets about and I will strive to do the same.

What do you long for your country to stand for? In what ways does it fall short? How can you live in a way that attempts to bridge the gap?

Our Old Testament reading Sunday followed “Put Not Your Hope in the Nation” and was from Zephaniah 9. The penultimate line says, “Return to your stronghold, O prisoners of hope.” Prisoners of hope? That phrase stopped me in my tracks. What does that even mean?

With some time to ponder it, I’ve decided a prisoner of hope is one who clings to hope when it looks like there is none. A prisoner of hope is one surrounded on every side by hope, not despair.

A prisoner of hope believes our country can once again be a melting pot that welcomes refugees. A prisoner of hope looks through the bars of injustice’s cell and sees blue skies. A prisoner of hope votes for agency for all, not power for a few.

Most of all, a prisoner of hope lets the beauty of the world frame her experience. Even (or especially) when things seem dire, the gift of a sunset, a bloom, a rain shower are reminders hope rises with the sun every morning.

What helps you hold onto hope? Where does hope surround you?

The Gospel for the sixth Sunday after Pentecost was from Matthew 11. The final verses were familiar ones: “Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

It feels impossible to hold onto hope alone. Jesus knows that. He lived during a time of great oppression and violence. When our hope seems futile and injustice reigns, Jesus invites us to come alongside him and let him walk, work and live alongside us. Jesus says, “Stand beside me. Let me shoulder the weight with you. Let me make you stronger by teaching you were to look and how to work.”

It is a gift to be a prisoner of hope. 2

May we who have hope share it with those we encounter by rooting ourselves in the deep, deep love of Jesus.

Subscribe now

Book Corner:
What I’ve Been Reading Lately

via library loan:
The Golden Boy’s Guide to Bipolar by Sonora Reyes
This book manages to be honest and lighthearted in places even when dealing with serious subjects. I thought the depiction of Cesar’s bipolar was honest and informative. I enjoyed the whole cast of characters in this book and I hope to circle be back around to Reyes’s books that I haven’t read yet.

The Unicorn Hunters by Katherine Arden
The Unicorn Hunters re-imagines the life of Anne of Brittany, a 15th century duchess. In Arden’s world, a unicorn approaches Anne, a stranger wanders into their party after two centuries of being lost and magic begins to seep from the Lost Lands into our world. The Bear and the Nightingale felt like a Russian fairy tale, full to the brim with magic. The Unicorn Hunters was more historical fiction than fairy tale. I wanted more magic. I wanted more unicorns. I liked the discourse around women of this time and their role(s) but this book left me wanting more.

May you have the grace this week to be a prisoner of hope, trusting that the One who loves us will break all chains in due time.

With Love and Hope,
Shannon

It’s July 1, which means we’re halfway through 2026. It’s easy to let time slip by without pausing to notice whether we’re actually using our time the way we want to. Today I invite you to do a little check in. Are you living into who you want to be this year? Think of these prompts like an examen. Don’t spend too much time on them. Consider them. Answer them. Move on. Pause at the end look back and get a broad view.

• When have you felt joyful and carefree?

  Maybe a trip, hike or retreat comes to mind. Maybe art-making, time with friends or time alone lightens your load. Whatever it is, name it.

• What are you proud of?

  This can be something small like forming a new habit or something big like finishing an ongoing project.

• What are you grateful for?

  What makes your heart full? Hold these things in your hands and offer thanks.

Pause here. Note the themes that emerge in your joy, pride and gratitude from the first half of 2026.

• Where have you experienced peace, contentment, beauty or a sense of God’s presence? These are consolations from God, freely given.

• Where have you felt pre-occupied, depressed, anxious, lonely or the absence of God? These are moments of desolation that all believers experience.

Consolation and desolation are the ebb and flow of a life of faith. What have the tides of your life looked like in 2026?

The year is only halfway over, so now is a good time to notice what you’re longing for.

• Is there a long-term goal that you can pursue?

• Is there a friendship you’d like to kindle or rekindle?

• How can you do more of the things that make you feel most alive?

How do you long to change or maintain the way you’re spending your time?

Subscribe now

Book Corner:
What I’ve Been Reading Lately

via library loan:
Girl’s Girl by Sonia Feldman
As a mother to three young women, the parents of the current generation have my most heartfelt empathy. Parenting wasn’t the point of this book at all, but I couldn’t help but think about how I would love, nurture and protect my daughters in the environment that first person narrator Mina describes. Mina and her friends spend hours doing their hair and makeup and choosing their clothing. They document every little event photographically. Feldman captures the reality of the way many girls experience themselves largely as objects to be seen.

Apart from a view into today’s teens, I also appreciated Feldman’s portrayal of the inner lives of fifteen year old girls. She really gets to the heart of how relational girls are and how they see themselves based on their relationships to others. Even I, who was a teen four decades go, remember how important my friendships were to my sense of self. I loved that Mina could trust her friends’ opinions of her, even as her closest friendships shifted, changed and evolved.

If you’re the mom to a tween or teen girl, I can’t recommend this book enough. It’s not prescriptive of your daughters experience, but I suspect it might rouse some empathy when relationships inevitably strain.

How to Survive in the Woods by Kat Rosenfeld
If you love a good long hike and want a twisty turny thriller set on the Appalachian Trail, this is the book for you. Emma, Taylor and Logan are messily intertwined and a hike on the northern end of the AT in September quickly takes unexpected turns. This was a quick read and would make a good beach read (or cabin read if that's more your style).

Mid Year Book Check In

I set my reading goal for this year at 100 books. I’m at 75 books as of right now, so I’ll easily surpass that goal— but I really only set a goal because Goodreads invites me to. I read because I love it and reading helps me grow as a person. I try to set an achievable goal so that I am willing to linger in a good book, not rush through it for the sake of an arbitrary number.

For several years, I did Book Riot’s Read Harder Challenge, but I stopped a few years ago when it began to feel like a slog to participate. This year, I decided to modify their challenge and make my own. I chose twelve categories and taped a list of them to the inside of my planner. I like the idea of challenging myself to read some books I would otherwise miss. My personal read harder categories for this year are:

• A book by a librarian

• A queer picture book

• A book recently adapted for film, TV or musical

• A book by a d/Deaf author

• A recipe from a cookbook about a culture whose food I’ve never eaten

• A nonfiction comic

• A YA book by a Latine author

• A novel with a main character who uses they/them pronouns

• A romantasy book with a queer and/or BIPOC main character

• A genre book in translation

• A nonviolent true crime book

• A book by an African author

I’ll update this list next quarter with links to the books I’ve chosen to complete these categories.

How do you choose what you read, watch and listen to?

May you have the grace to live into the invitations 2026 brings to you. May today’s pause to look back at the first half of the year inspire and encourage you to keep going… or change course.

Peace & Grace,
Shannon

I recently spoke with someone interested in spiritual direction and she asked why I do this work. There are so many reasons, but what popped out of my mouth on that particular day is that receiving spiritual direction gave me a freedom in my faith that I long to give others.

My experience of spiritual direction was that it helped me trust my own experiences and invitations from God. (Much deeper into the process it even helped me trust my deepest desires.) After sixteen years or so of being in spiritual direction, I can’t imagine ever going more than a few months here or there without seeing a director. Without that invitation and discipline, it’s easy to stop noticing the things that are most life-giving, despite how much I value them. My monthly check-in with my director allows me to offer up what I sense God doing in my life and receive guidance, encouragement or just the gift of a witness.

Spiritual direction is a reminder that we aren’t meant to live life alone. Where do you find encouragement and guidance? Who bears witness to what happens underneath the surface of your life?

Before I encountered spiritual direction, the biggest way I followed God’s lead was in leaving one church for another. I started having niggling doubts that this wasn’t the place for us before my husband did. I mentioned a few things, but I didn’t push at first. Then a few experiences with our daughter united us both in the feeling that it was time to move on. “Moving on” is a two word phrase that vastly simplifies the loss of community we experienced: none of our closest friends from that community understood nor remained in relationship with us.

At the time, I would have said we left so that my strong-willed daughter could stay strong-willed. I had no interest in breaking her will to get her to conform. I also might have said that I felt like a family with three daughters needed a church that ordained women. If I really trusted you, I might have admitted that sermon after sermon about wives submitting to husbands had begun to rub me the wrong way.

With the gift of hindsight, I would tell you that God could see so many things I couldn’t. God knew (as I did) that my middle daughter needed a safe place to ask her many questions and not be seen as a bad kid for doing so. God also knew that my eldest, rule-following daughter would never have come out to us as a lesbian in high school if we’d stayed in a church that held no safe space for that. God foresaw that my youngest would one day hear about the idea of predestination and exclaim, “What are you talking about?!? I’ve been told my whole life that God loves everyone!”

God knows my children better that I do and that’s why we were led to a church that was a safe and loving environment for all of us. I thought I was protecting one daughter and perhaps my own inner child with the shift from one church to another. God knew there was a deeper and broader need under the surface.

I haven’t found God’s invitations to be particularly easy ones to follow. Is there a place you’ve followed God that felt scary, hard or sad? What was the outcome?

I begin each spiritual direction session with a set opening and closing to mark our time. I alternate between using my favorite benediction (above) and my favorite Thomas Merton prayer (below). When I recite the benediction above, I’ve noticed that I don’t say “honor all people,” I say “honor. all. people.” Each word of this phrase deserves emphasis and my body found its own rhythm the more I offered the prayer.

God doesn’t love only some of us. If Jesus showed us anything, it was that he loved widely. The norms he most consistently challenged were who was worthy of love and inclusion. I want to be known for this kind of love. I want to be the kind of person who sees people for who they are and loves well.

I suspect Jesus would be first in line offering hugs at Pride events were he here in flesh and blood right now. For my part, I don’t love LGBTQ+ folks despite my faith. I love because of my faith.

Loving isn’t always easy. Who do you find it easy to love and honor? Who is challenging to love and honor?

Subscribe now

Last Chance to Join Full Moon Prayer!

Book Corner:
What I’ve Been Reading Lately

via library loan:
Tomboy: A Graphic Memoir by Liz Prince
This memoir managed to make me think about gender in new ways without ever feeling preachy. I loved the author’s honesty, vulnerability and humor throughout. If you’ve ever wondered whether you fit in, this book will be an encouragement.

It’s Hard to Be an Animal by Robert Isaacs
This book was an odd combination to me - crude alongside beautiful and a tense mystery alongside a quiet romance. I nearly stopped reading when I got to the talking rats, despite the fact that the blurb on the back of the book clearly told me this was coming. (I. can. not. abide. rodents.) I'm glad I stuck with it. I did enjoy my time with Henry & Co, but I don't think this is a book that I'll be recommending far and wide.

The Enchanted Greenhouse by Sarah Beth Durst
My youngest daughter lent me her copy of The Spellshop in the spring. It took me a few months to get to it (sometimes the library queue rules my reading), but it was cozy and enjoyable. This second volume set in the same world is equally pleasant. It’s slow paced and cozy in a way that’s just what I need right now.

My Lord God,
I have no idea where I am going.
I do not see the road ahead of me.
I cannot know for certain where it will end.
Nor do I really know myself,|
and the fact that I think I am following your will
does not mean that I am actually doing so.
But I believe that the desire to please you
does in fact please you.1
And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing.
I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire.
And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road,
though I may know nothing about it.
Therefore will I trust you always though
I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death.
I will not fear, for you are ever with me,
and you will never leave me to face my perils alone.

-Thomas Merton

May we honor all people out of a desire to please God. May we have the grace to love as Jesus did.

With Love for You,
Shannon

When I was homeschooling my daughters, I constantly asked myself if I was doing enough to educate them. Would they have what they needed for high school? Were they well-rounded learners? How much of our day was spent actively learning?

I also constantly asked myself if we were doing too much. Was I trying to pack too much into a day or week? Were we moving quickly through material that invited us to linger? Were we taking time to learn in unconventional ways like spending a day at our local botanical gardens?

It’s been five years since I last homeschooled in any way. I thought the too much/not enough questions would abate. They have not — and perhaps they never will.

Are you more prone to do too much or not enough?

I’ve found it’s important as a spiritual director to take some time off each year. Time off looks like an eight day silent retreat annually to set aside time to really hear from God directly and it also looks like four to six weeks off to reset between one set of groups and prepare for new groups. This is not just for me: I like a break annually to give directees an opportunity to assess whether they want to continue with direction.

I’ve played around with the best way to structure my summers in my current life. When I ran a homeschool tutorial, summer months were a natural ebb in the year. There was a lull in the work between ending one school year and beginning another. That’s less true for me now, so I struggle a bit with whether I’m resting enough or too much, whether I’m working enough or too much, whether I’m being lazy or leaning into what life offers me.

During all those years of homeschooling, I pictured the too much, not enough question as a tightrope. If I tipped too much in one direction or another, we would all go tumbling over the side. It occurred to me yesterday that I think the tightrope imagery is more restrictive than life itself. Instead of a tightrope, I think the space between too much and not enough is more like a hiking trail.

On a hiking trail, I can veer off the trail for quite a bit before tumbling into the depths. It’s harder to hike off trail, just as life gets harder if I’m doing too much or not enough. But the trail varies, just as my own capacity sometimes does. Sometimes there’s a small range between too much and not enough, but other times the trail widens and there’s room for each day to look different than the one before.

What’s the rhythm of your life? Are you at a point where the trail is wide and welcoming or one where you need to walk single file?

Some days I am able to listen to my life’s invitations and receive them. On Monday, I did a spiritual direction session on the screened in porch and reveled in the lack of humidity. As soon as that wrapped up, I threw on clothes and went for a hike with my dog Luna. The weather was still pleasant after lunch, so I quickly mowed the lawn before a call with an old friend. I didn’t actually accomplish much on my to-do list that day. But I did hear and receive the invitations of the day.

What is your life offering you today, this week, this month?

Subscribe now

Full Moon Prayer Evening

Book Corner:
What I’ve Been Reading Lately

via library loan:
Five by Ilona Bannister
I loved the way this book was written and the unique characters the author crafted. The back and forth in time was effective as we got to know the five main characters bit by bit. The writing style encouraged me to read slowly so as to not miss anything and I appreciated the sections where the author wrote directly to the reader, breaking the fourth wall. I suspect I’ll be thinking about these characters for a long time.

Tokyo Express by Seichō Matsumoto
Tokyo Express felt like a trip to another world: 1958 Japan. Somehow the absence of modern technology was both relaxing as a reader and highlighted how tech dependent we’ve become. If you’re a mystery fan, I think Japanese mysteries are a great way to expand your experience of the genre.

Savor It by Tarah DeWitt
This is the first of DeWitt's books I've read, but I suspect it won't be the last. I enjoyed my time in Spunes, which was far less silly and cheesy than the name suggests. The Pacific NW is one of my favorite places in the world, so I enjoyed picturing the setting of this book and I liked the cast of characters (including Sage's farm animals). Sage and Fisher had great chemistry and I'm hoping for glimpses of them living happily ever after in some of the other Spunes books.

When your life feels like too much or not enough, may you have the grace to remember you that YOU are not too much or not enough - you are loved exactly as you are.

Peace & Grace,
Shannon

A lot has changed since then and there’s value in pausing to assess whether these are still the values I hold most dear… and whether I’m living into them. I’ve found that even when my values aren’t shifting, my life is. Is my life offering an invitation to lean more heavily into one aspect of my rule than another?

A Just Life
For me, a just life is one where I live intentionally in the way I steward my resources and use my privilege. This means asking myself questions about how I’m shopping, what I’m eating and whether I turn more frequently to consumables or reusables. When we renovated our house, we put our money into creating more space for hosting. That meant leaving the kitchen as-is. For the first time in my life, I don’t have a dishwasher. I’ll admit it’s tempting at times to use paper plates for a group gathering to spare myself time at the sink later. But by and large, I have held onto my value of living justly even when that means washing up again and again.

Another part of a just life for me is voting in a way that I think will make the world a more just place. As I prepare to vote, I’m not looking for which candidate will make my own life easier, but for the one who will ensure all voices are heard. As a middle-class white woman, the world is mostly set up for my ease. Living justly means voting for that to be true no matter class, race or gender.

What does a just life look like for you?

A Faithful Life
I long to be faithful to God and to who God made me to be. There are seasons when I connect with God through resources like Sacred Space, Pray as You Go or SSJE. And there are times when I use less structured methods like breath prayer, meditation and nature. There’s a temptation to see myself as lax during a less structured season, but the truth is we need rest. I love that our church switches from two services with a formation hour to one service only during the summer months. It models that we all need a mix of leaning in and receiving with open hands.

Right now, being faithful to who God made me to be entails a lot of waiting. Waiting and watching to see what is next. Waiting for an opportunity that utilizes my administrative as well as spiritual gifts. Waiting for the next right step. There have been times in this season when I’ve longed to just make a decision and put an end to the waiting. But I trust that God will reveal His plans to be in due time, so I try to wait faithfully.

What does a faithful life look like to you?

A Generous Life
Perhaps when you think of generosity, you think of how much money you give — that is surely one way we can be generous, but no one gets into spiritual direction for the income. I’ve learned to notice not just where I give my money, but my time and talent as well. It has taken me a long time to learn that a key part of living a generous life is saying NO. If I say yes to unimportant things that aren’t really mine to do, I won’t have the energy to say yes to the actually important things. Saying no at the right time requires giving myself space to discern whether a yes or no is the right answer for me.

How do you share your time, talent and treasure? What are the ways saying no to some things has opened up space to live with true generosity?

A Simple Life
When I pause to assess my actual life compared to my rule of life, I think the hardest part to live consistently is simplicity. The world around me constantly invites complexity. Am I multi-tasking? How much can I pack into each day, hour, minute? Am I reading enough? Working enough? Cooking enough? Doing enough?

There are lots of ways to choose simplicity. Maybe you have a capsule wardrobe to minimize waste and decision making in your clothing choices. Maybe you have strict boundaries around screen time and doomscrolling. When I think of a simple life, the most concrete thing I want is margin. I want space in my calendar and enough energy in my body to respond to invitations that come my way. I want to be present with people when I’m with them, not preoccupied about what’s next.

Is there a place in your life where you long for simplicity? What does simplicity look like and feel like for you?

Life in Community
I believe humans weren’t meant to live alone. We are wired to do life together in community. Community lets us share what we have and receive what we need. When I crafted my rule in 2024, we were hosting weekly Taco Tuesdays with a mix of ages, family systems and generations. We haven’t successfully replicated Taco Tuesdays in our new home. Currently, our regular community is comprised of a small group from our church along with regular visits from our adult daughters who are in Nashville. One of our daughters hopes to move to Chicago soon, so I’m interested to see what my husband and I long for in terms of community after that shift takes place.

Where do you find community and build community?

Subscribe now

Prayer Under the Full Moon

Book Corner:
What I’ve Been Reading Lately

via library loan:
The Book of Doors by Gareth Brown
I liked this twisty-turny time travel, magic book story. Time travel is always mind-bending and this was no exception. I enjoyed the characters and that the plot never quite went where I expected.

This Book Made Me Think of You by Libby Page
What a delightful book this is for anyone who loves books and knows anything about grief. Tilly, Alfie and crew are fun to spend time with, even if the premise of the book makes it sound heavier than it is (Tilly’s husband buys her a book per month for the first year following his death). This book would make a great beach read and will remind you why you love having books in your life.

Kindness and Wonder: Why Mr. Rogers Matters Now More than Ever by Gavin Edwards
My daughter read this and then lent it to me before it goes back to the library. I didn't grow up watching Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood because we didn't get PBS where I lived. But his gentle way appealed to me when I was raising our daughters and I learned a bit more about him on a recent trip to the Heinz Museum in Pittsburgh. I will note that I found the story of Rogers interesting, but found the writing in this book to be mediocre at best.

What do you use to measure whether you’re living your life the way you long to live? May you have space and grace this week to pause and assess.

Love,
Shannon

Last month, my middle daughter graduated from her master’s program. Her commencement speaker was an alum who shared that her career path was not what she would have guessed at the time of graduation. One encouragement she offered the educators-to-be was to remain unfinished — to take the unexpected path, to keep evolving, to stay open to new things.

Years ago, my husband and I observed that certain personality traits seemed to calcify as people age, while others stay pliable. We have since (something jokingly) asserted that we need to be become who we want to be before we calcify.

Who are you? Who do you still long to be?

Take the unexpected path
If you had told me three decades ago that I would found and run a homeschool tutorial, I would have been surprised to know I have children, much less homeschool them. At that point in my life, I’d never met someone who had been homeschooled. A short conversation with the parent of a classmate planted the seed of the idea of homeschooling.

That seed took root and within five years I was homeschooling all of my daughters. Not long after, I decided my family and community needed a secular tutorial option. I took what felt like one small step and it’s amazing to me that such a small seed has grown into a program that continues today.

If you had told me two decades ago that I would be a spiritual director, I would have asked you what that even was. I first heard of spiritual direction roughly fifteen years ago and can’t imagine who I would be had I not encountered this way of listening to God in my life.

The paths of homeschooling and spiritual direction first appeared as little more than foot trails. By taking steps onto the trail, the path widened to expand where I was walking and how I was living.

What paths have you taken that you didn’t see coming?

Keep Evolving
My husband and I attended our first football game together when we were college students. As our team set up to punt (there was a lot punting for our team in those years), Jason began to explain to me what a punt was. I stopped him. I may have even held my hand up like a stop sign. “I’m from Alabama. I understand football,” I told him.

For as long as I can remember, I’ve loved football. The JP SEC game of the week played in our home most Saturday mornings. I had friends over annually for the Iron Bowl from high school on. I have long dreamed of a screened in back porch so I could watch football games outside (you know where to find me come fall).

Baseball is another story. It’s just. so. slow. Yes, I understand there’s strategy. It’s just that part of the strategy is to delay. I was not a fan. This began to change ever so slightly the first time Vanderbilt made it to the college world series. And when MLB introduced the pitch clock, my makeover was complete. I would still pick football over baseball, but I’ve come to truly enjoy - not just tolerate - the game.

I could have stayed entrenched in my belief that baseball wasn’t for me. Instead, I let myself evolve as the game evolved and now baseball is one more point of connection for my husband and me. This might seem like a silly change - to go from disliking baseball to liking it - but I know how I felt about it years ago and I know the joy I’ve found in the change.

What’s something you’ve changed your mind about? Is there something you’re being invited to reconsider that might let new joy into your life?

Stay open
Who are you now that you never thought you’d be?

Who are you now that you’ve always longed to be?

What do you need to let go of in order to remain open to the possibilities ahead?

Subscribe now

Books:
What I’ve Been Reading Lately

I wasn’t able to write last week, so there’s an exceptionally long list below. You’ve been warned…

via library loan
We Burned So Bright by TJ Klune
Meh. At the start of this book, I thought maybe it would have the magic I’ve only found in Klune’s House in the Cerulean Sea. That hope faded quickly. I am not a fan of author’s using dialogue to insert their own diatribe. Show me. Don’t tell me.

Lady Tremaine by Rachel Houchhauser
I'm a fan of freshly told fairy tales and Lady Tremaine turns Cinderella on its head. I loved the unexpected characteristics of Ethel, Cinderella's stepmother -- from her falconry to her stubbornly hidden poverty to her fierce maternal spirit. This book is a great example of giving voice to a character who is nothing more than a caricature in original tellings.

The Last Mandarin by Louise Penny
I enjoyed Louise Penny’s co-write with Hilary Rodman Clinton so I didn’t hesitate to read this book. Sadly, it was by far the worst of her books I’ve ever read. The plotting was convoluted even for a thriller and the characters were wildly unbelievable. Even if you’re a Penny fan, I’d give this one a pass. Now for the next Gamache book…

Half City by Kate Golden
In my experience, few books that compare themselves to Buffy the Vampire Slayer actually meet that standard. Half City does. Viv is darker than early Buffy but her honorable tendencies and internal struggles remind me of B. That being said, I felt like this book floundered in places. It bothered me that time kept passing with the turn of a page and no one had found the missing friend. I'm not sure I'd call the mystery of Viv's dad's death resolved, so I hope there's more to come on that. Am I happy it ended with a cliffhanger? No, but I suspected as much. I'll definitely read the next one. If you like supernatural, dark academia vibes, you should grab this one!

The Things We Never Say by Elizabeth Strout
When I got this book from the library, I saved it for a while. I knew I wanted to read it when I would have the time to savor the experience. Thank you to my past self because a rainy Saturday was the perfect time to read it. Artie Dam is a high school history teacher in his 50s. Over the course of this novel, we see him begin to understand some deep truths about life. The Things We Never Say is a portrait of one man, but also a novel about the power of teachers, the complicated path of marriage and what it really means to be a parent.

Our Perfect Storm by Carley Fortune
This book is the story of Frankie and George, friends since childhood. It's also the story of a chef and a journalist and their shared love of their homeland Canada. The romance part of this novel is so-so. The love letter to Canada part is better. There's so much of the world left to see - Tofino is now on my list.

This Story Might Save Your Life by Tiffany Crum
TSMSYL read a bit like Gone Girl mixed with a romcom. I loved Benny and Joy and the subtext that a book about domestic abuse might save a reader’s life is one I appreciated. It was also fascinating to read a book with a narcoleptic main character. The ending felt rushed, but I’d still recommend this is a great beach read or poolside companion.

May you have the grace to allow yourself to be in suspense and incomplete. Remaining unfinished until the very end is what makes life worth living.

Peace & Grace,
Shannon

This spring, my Bible study group read stories of women saints in Our Church Speaks. It was encouraging to learn more about women I knew and to meet new women who lived their lives in the way God uniquely shaped them. I ended the study feeling grateful to know more people in the communion of saints.

Last Sunday, I attended a service of worship and remembrance for the father of a friend. He lived a long and full life and was beautifully eulogized by two friends. After the eulogies, we heard a Litany of Remembrance. This beautiful practice named some of the many ways we will remember the life of this man.

These two things together - the saints and the litany - got me thinking about those who no longer walk this earth, but shape my life. Who do I remember and how to do I remember them?

Who do you remember? How do you remember them?

For her pecan tassies, red velvet cake and gumbo. For her love of family expressed through hospitality. For her years leading the choir in worship. For her kindness and generosity. I remember my Granny.

For her acerbic wit, her sharp mind and her adventurous spirit. For her willingness and desire to learn at any age. For her heart for those less fortunate. For her empathy and strength in equal measure. I remember my Aunt Harriet.

For the dresses she sewed for my daughters, her artistic nature and the sand tarts she made for my rehearsal dinner. For her loving care for others and her stubborn insistence on mowing her own lawn well into her 70s. I remember my Aunt Monie.

For his open heart and open home, his love of the South Alabama Jaguars and his example of welcoming those who need a family. I remember Harold Hodges.

For his commitment to the parish of St. B’s. For his love of family and community. For his gift of hospitality and welcome. I remember Tim Villager.

For his presence in the pew behind us. For his welcoming of us to St. Louis. For his sharp mind and deep intelligence. I remember Vernon Alexander.

For his desire to improve our community. For his big voice in a quiet room. For the way he made me feel and my determination to not make my daughters feel the same. For all he missed due to addiction’s grip. I remember my father.

Who do you remember from your family, your church, your childhood?

For her extraordinary attention to the world around her. For her way of describing with words things seen with the eyes and felt with the heart. For her ability to create beauty of ashes. I remember Mary Oliver.

For his willingness to listen to God’s invitations. For the way he shared what God gave him. For his example of getting to know Jesus intimately and letting that shape his life. I remember St. Ignatius of Loyola.

For his gentle care as a spiritual director. For his conviction that God wants us to enjoy life. For his example of loving encouragement. I remember St. Claude de la Colombiere.

For taking the life she was given and shaping it into something her own. For using music, herbs and leadership to express her God-given qualities. For speaking truth to power. I remember Hildegard of Bingen.

For her willingness to say yes again and again. For her example of living after the worst had happened. For her embodiment of motherly love. I remember Mary, the mother of Jesus.

Who do you remember that you never met in person? How do you remember them? How have they shaped your life?

For the girl dripping wet poolside. For the one desperate to please to earn love. For the mother who stumbled and tripped her way through the early years. For the lifelong learner who homeschooled her daughters. For the one who dreamed of a broad and safe community and took steps to build it. For the one who awaits what is next. I remember the Shannon who was and look forward to the Shannon who will be.

How do you remember yourself? Who might you still become?

Subscribe now

June Quiet Days

Book Corner:
What I’ve Been Reading Lately

via library loan:
Weavingshaw by Heba Al-Wasity
Weavingshaw features a character who can see the dead, another who trades in secrets and a third who’s a one handed swordsman. Perhaps surprisingly, it works. I’m curious to see where the next book takes us.

An Academic Affair by Jodi McAlister
This was an enjoyable romcom and unique for its setting in the world of Australian academics. I liked both main characters and especially appreciated the exploration of privilege and how awareness of privilege can ebb and flow within a person’s life.

This is Not About Us by Allegra Goodman
I read a review that this book is like reading a series of short stories. I can handle that but after three such stories, I don’t like the characters. Moving on: did not finish.

via audiobook:
The Place of Tides by James Rebanks
I’m still listening to this book about a small island off the coast of Norway and the duck woman who lives there seasonally to keep the ducks safe. I confess my attention is lingering in places, but I’m far enough in that I want to get to the finish line.

May you have the grace this week to remember those who have shaped your life and may you remain open to being shaped anew.

Peace & Grace,
Shannon

I believe that God is still creating the world and we are invited to co-create with God. That being said, it’s not always easy to figure out what God is up to. But sometimes — every now and then — a theme keeps showing up in my life in so many ways that God seems to be all but demanding my attention. This month, that theme is holding things loosely.

For a spiritual direction prompt this month, I’m using a passage I’ve loved for years from Peter van Breemen, SJ in As Bread That is Broken:

Open Hands

There are many things in my life to which I cling as with a clenched fist - my possessions for sure but the immaterial things as well - the work I do, the position I hold, the friends I have, my ideas, my principles, my image. If I should open my fist, they still remain. Nothing drops out. But my hands are open. And that is what prayer is.

After a while, if I am willing to remain long enough with open hands, the Lord will come. The Lord may take something out, and he may put something in. I have only to open my heart and my hands and just stay there long enough for the Lord to come.

In ways I can never predict, this passage has been for me as much as for my directees.

What are the things you’re clinging to with a clenched fist? What responsibilities or obligations do you long to have taken off your hands? What do you hold that you hold in gratitude?

Last weekend, my middle daughter Bekah graduated with her Master’s degree in Elementary Education. It was a joy to celebrate her… and I missed having my youngest daughter Kate here since her own exams prevented her from joining us. Having adult children is a surefire way to learn to hold those you love with open hands.

I enjoy the company of my daughters, but they are busy building their own lives. I try to hold my expectations loosely and relish whatever time I have with them - planned or unplanned, on special occasions or a normal weeknight, for a few hours or a few days. Kate didn’t miss out on Bekah’s graduation because there’s a rift in their relationship and for that I am grateful. Fifteen years ago, my daughters fought regularly. Now they text regularly and offer each other advice. By opening my hands to hold who they are now, I have the gift of seeing them grow into the fun, functional adults they are.

Are there familial expectations you struggle to hold loosely? How might opening your hands around those expectations bring freedom to you and others?

My husband Jason and I co-lead a small group at our church on Monday evenings. We’ve been trying out several different options to determine how we’d like to structure our time when we’re back together after summer break. This week, we tried out a beloved resource: Celtic Daily Prayer. In preparation, I snapped pictures of Evening Prayer and sent them out without reading the material ahead of time.

I was surprised when the daily meditation felt like an echo of the open hands passage I used earlier in the day for two direction sessions:

Be quick to hear the hard words that people bring you. Then be slow to react. Don’t rush into denial, retaliation and rationalisation. Our challenge is to covert the energy once used by our self-defence machines into listening power, vulnerability power and contemplation power. We need to say to ourselves, ‘Before I flare up, I’m going to quiet myself and listen. I’m going to be quick to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger. I’m going to search for the truth in what this person is saying, and learn from it.’

-Bill Hybels

If I can open my hands and heart to the words of others, I can sift feedback, take what is for me and let the rest fall away. Listening with closed hands feels like hanging on to my own talking points instead of making space to hear the other person. Listening with open hands feels like scooping sand from the riverbed and letting the water fall away so the sand remains.

The invitation to listen from the Hybels quote would have hit me differently if I hadn’t spent part of that day praying through Open Hands.

What words, phrases or images are show up for you in heavy rotation right now? What’s the invitation there?

Subscribe now

June Quiet Days

Book Corner:
What I’ve Been Reading Lately

via library loan:
Cherry Baby by Rainbow Rowell
In my opinion, this is Rowell's best book since Fangirl. Cherry Baby was authentic, moving and thought-provoking. Cherry's inner monologue reflected many of my own conflicted feelings about being a woman in the current environment of GLP-1s. Her conversation with her ex-husband about feeling like she deserved good things and was a good thing was heartbreakingly real. This book is funny and sexy and also deeply serious. If you want a fictional nudge to begin processing some of your feelings on body image, you can't do much better than Cherry.

Love by the Book by Jessica George
Love by the Book is an anomaly for me. I didn’t enjoy the writing style; it often felt like characters went off on monologues to get a point across rather than the author showing me why the character felt that way. Lots of telling. Not enough showing. But I did want to see how the friendship of Remy and Simone panned out, so I kept reading. Should *you* read this? If you want a book where female friendship is the star, yes. Otherwise, I think there are other books that deal with some of these themes with more humor and better writing (i.e. Margo’s Got Money Troubles).

via audiobook:
The Place of Tides by James Rebanks
I visited Norway several years ago and fell in love with the stark beauty of the land and the friendly welcome from Norwegians. This book tells the story of Rebanks, who goes to the archipelago of Norwegian islands to spend time with Anna, a duck lady. This is a portrait of a unique place in the world and how it stands both inside and outside of the flow of time.

May you have the grace this week to hold the things you love with open hands.

Peace & Grace,
Shannon

Dear Spring,

You’ve never been my favorite. You bring pollen galore and buckets of rain. You require frequent mowing, dressing in layers, washing the car and wiping down the porch daily. Your coats of pollen have me sneezing and rubbing my eyes while my head throbs. In short, you make me uncomfortable and create work, so I’ve never been particularly delighted to see your arrival.

But I confess you are growing on me, Spring. Listening to birds this Lent was the first internal shift. Their presence was a reminder of all the life around me. Birdsong is evidence that I am not alone. I still have so much to learn. I’m not a full-fledged birder by any means. But I can tell when there are different kinds of birds in the trees calling to each other. I’ve learned to pause at the chittering and chirping to wait for a glimpse of who is sharing my backyard today. Instead of your presence being just an inconvenience or a sign of summer on the way, I’m beginning to see the real you.

For decades, you were just a stop on the way to summer, Spring. Perhaps that was shaped by growing up on the Gulf Coast where summer was interrupted only for minor holidays like Thanksgiving and Christmas. I don’t love all that summer brings with its heat, humidity and long days. Your presence has generally been greeted within me as a sad shift away from the invitations of fall and winter to slow down, rest and hibernate.

The year I had cancer, I received the official diagnosis the day before Thanksgiving. That winter was occupied by surgery, recovery and radiation. When spring and summer arrived, I was dismayed that I’d missed my chance to rest with the seasons. How could I face spring and summer without living fully into fall and winter? I clearly managed it, but I was ever-so-grateful to have fall arrive the next year.

This spring had several advantages. It was my first spring with the screened in porch I’ve long dreamed of. It’s been drier than usual - I’ve never longed for rain quite like I have recently. It’s also been cooler than usual. I’m so grateful to have lingered in the 60s for a few weeks instead of jumping straight to the 80s like we often do.

But my feelings for Spring are not just about these external factors. I am shifting and changing. I have gone from too little free time to too much. The need for shorter days and cooler weather is less urgent in me. Perhaps the dark has done its work and I am ready, like you Spring, to let growth explode in and around me.

Perhaps you love spring and always have, but if we’re alive hopefully we are growing and changing. What’s an internal shift you’re noticing? Are you welcoming the change or resisting it?

Subscribe now

Join me for a June Quiet Day

Book Corner:
What I’ve Been Reading Lately

via library loan:
The Book Witch by Meg Shaffer
What a fun and surprising book this was! I enjoyed The Lost Story by Shaffer enough that I bought it for each of my daughters for Easter. The Book Witch did not disappoint. This book followed my reading of The Astral Library -- both are books about books and I liked this one even more than Quinn's offering. The Book Witch was somehow whimsical and serious, with a great message about living life fully.

The List of Suspicious Things by Jennie Godfrey
I needed a change of pace after two books about books. I’m enjoying this mystery set in 1970s Yorkshire with primary characters who are tweens. There’s something familiar about their free-range childhood that reminds me of my own (tho I didn’t have a serial killer on the loose at the time).

via audiobook:
Turning to Birds: The Power and Beauty of Noticing by Lili Taylor
I enjoyed, but didn’t love, this book. I liked the way Taylor shared her encounters with birds across many places since her work takes her to various locations for stretches of time. I also liked the anecdotes when she waited for an anticipated bird. This book made me long to lean into my curiosity about birds and their place in my world.

May you welcome with curiosity the changes that are happening in and around you.

Peace & Grace,
Shannon

Last Friday evening, my mom joined two of my daughters and me for a play. We grabbed Thai food beforehand and arrived with flowers for the director - my friend Aimee. The road to this production had been a rocky one; for weeks, I’d been praying for the students, the parents and Aimee’s family. There were multiple stress points and tragedies that could have derailed the whole thing. But The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane could not be stopped: it was beauty waiting to be born.

What Aimee and her team put together with a group of a dozen students was nothing short of extraordinary. The set, the costumes and the music left a lasting impression. As we walked to our cars at the end of the night, my eldest daughter bemoaned the fact that she had to drive herself home instead of continuing to discuss the play in the car with us. The show itself felt as miraculous as the title indicated… and perhaps the perseverance to get there was meant to be part of that story.

When have you experienced roadblocks in the midst of creation? Do the challenges feel like a distraction or a key part of the experience?

I haven’t read the source material for the play, but on the drive home we mused that it reminded us of The Velveteen Rabbit, The Little Prince and life itself. If you don’t know the story, Edward is a china rabbit who is loved and lost several times over. Each mishap makes Edward a bit more thankful for the life he’s living. Some people are able to find gratitude for life early on, but I think most of us are like Edward: we start out entitled and gradually find thanks for all we have.

That was perhaps true of this very production. The director’s daughter stepped in when a student had to drop out a month before showtime. Aimee’s mother-in-law became very ill, went into hospice care and passed away in the final pre-production weeks and days. The enemy did everything possible to prevent the beauty of this play from making it to the stage.

How have the mishaps of your life brought you to gratitude? When have you persevered with a project that felt impossible at times?

As I watched the play, I was increasingly impressed — with the shadow puppets used to beautifully move the story along, with the young students who not only acted, but played violin and guitar onstage, with the set’s flexibility and effectiveness. I’ve known Aimee for decades. When we met, we were pregnant with children who are now young women. I’ve known her love for theater, but have experienced firsthand more of her love of writing, art and all things creative. Watching The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane - this labor of love from my friend - gave me new and deep insight into how God made her.

I left Friday night convinced that God made her for exactly what she was doing. God made her to share the gift of theater to tell us stories that are truer than fiction. God made her to spread beauty in unique and lasting ways. God made her to have a vision and execute it to bring wonder into the world.

We all have some big or little way we’re invited to bring beauty into the world. What’s yours? Do you find beauty in the garden? in your kitchen? in a color-coded calendar?

Subscribe now

Join me for a June Quiet Day

Book Corner:
What I’ve Been Reading Lately

via library loan:
Meet the Newmans by Jennifer Niven
Meet the Newmans is a fun book set in the 1960s, but it has something important to say right now in 2026. The novel is named after a TV show that follows the Newmans in a not-quite-real way. Instead, the TV show displays their lives through the lens of lives that have it all. Other than the patriarch, each Newman has their own untold story. I loved the way each character evolves over the course of the novel and it made my heart ache that some of these characters would face similar struggles today. This book reminded me of Lessons in Chemistry and it would make a great vacation read as summer approaches.

The Astral Library by Kate Quinn
What lover of books hasn't longed to jump into the world of a book every now and then? In The Astral Library, Kate Quinn creates a world where libraries (and galleries and video games) are sanctuaries for lost and desperate souls. Alix (named for the library of Alexandria) finds herself in the Astral library after ten years of foster care, getting fired from her job and her roommate telling her to find a new place to live. I loved the library's vitality and trying to guess what books Alix was entering with the Librarian as the book progressed. This book was written for lovers of books and libraries - it's both fun and a good reminder of the value libraries bring to the real world.

via audiobook:
Work in Progress by James Martin, SJ
I didn’t love this book as much as some others by Martin, but it was an interesting glimpse of his life before priesthood. I enjoyed hearing about his summer jobs and first job after college - his life in Plymouth Meeting, PA was pretty different than mine on the Alabama Gulf Coast. I predict the things that will stay with me from this book are an invitation to look at how my work has shaped who I currently am and a gentle reminder that God will keep calling me no matter how unlikely it might seem that God wants me for a particular role.

May you have the gift of bringing your beauty into the world this week.

Love,
Shannon

The photos in this and every newsletter are my own and are not AI generated nor AI enhanced.

Last Sunday, I served at church during two baptisms. After the children were baptized, our priest prayed:

Heavenly Father, we thank you that by water and the Holy Spirit you have bestowed upon these your servants the forgiveness of sin, and have raised them to the new life of grace. Sustain them, O Lord, in your Holy Spirit. Give them an inquiring and discerning heart, the courage to will and to persevere, a spirit to know and to love you, and the gift of joy and wonder in all your works. Amen.

There’s a lot in these three sentences, but the phrase that immediately struck me was the one in bold above: “Give them an inquiring and discerning heart.” I’ve learned over years of contemplative prayer to pay attention when words and phrases jump out at me, so today I invite you to ponder with me:

What does it mean to have an inquiring and discerning heart?

I love that instead of baptism washing away our questions, our inquiries are instead watered and fed by the sacrament. We don’t pray that those baptized would never question their faith. Instead we pray that the Spirit would give them questions — and a faith to sustain these questions.

I am an asker of questions. I want to know why I’m asked to do something when I’m asked to do it. I want to understand how people in my life are feeling. I want to piece together how someone’s actions flow from their beliefs and experiences. One of the gifts I’ve received from being in spiritual direction is a deeper understanding of the way God not only can withstand my questions, but wants them.

God wants my questions because God wants relationship with me. Ditto God — I want my faith to be more than rote prayers, a set of beliefs and a checklist for how to live. I want relationship. And in relationship, unanswered questions fester, worm into our hearts and create rifts. It’s so much better to ask the questions - of those here with us and of the Divine.

To be clear, I don’t always receive answers to the questions I ask. But sometimes a long-asked question will garner a whispered answer when I’m least expecting it.

What questions does your heart have? Have you been invited to ask those questions?

May you feel the freedom today to ask all the things, knowing the God of the Universe lovingly awaits.

Asking our questions is just one half of the invitation prayed at baptisms. The other half is discernment. We ask the Spirit to grant a discerning heart. Maybe discernment follows inquiry in this prayer because the questions we have for God aren’t always (or even often) going to receive answers. What happens after we ask a question?

Mostly what happens is we keep on living. We keep on trusting and believing that God is who he says he is1. We rely on our lived experience. We look for the good, the beauty and the love in the world. We discern when to act and when to wait, when to pause and when to speak, when to give up and when to press on.

There’s a type of faith that tells you if you do certain things and avoid other things, everything will work out. That type of faith is an attractive lie. A life of faith doesn’t guarantee outcomes, but it offers companionship and relationship on the journey. This shift is both freeing and disappointing. Freeing because none of us are going to get it completely right and disappointing because we acknowledge we can’t control the way our life unfolds.

St. Ignatius thought discernment was so important that he created a list of rules of discernment. These rules aren’t prescriptive, but descriptive. In the rules, Ignatius describes circumstances we encounter during a life of faith and he offers suggestions for navigating these circumstances. He reminds us in his rules of discernment that when we’re in desolation, we remember consolation. That is to say, when we aren’t feeling God’s presence, we look back to times when we once did.

St. Ignatius doesn’t give us a checklist for how to make good decisions. Instead he says in many different ways: “Remember who you are. Remember who God is.” And then he gives us some practical ways to do that.

Baptism marks us as God’s own, but it doesn’t give us all the answers or the directions for life. Instead, baptism invites us officially into God’s family and welcomes us to ask questions and keep thinking as we walk the way of Jesus.

What tools have helped you discern over the course of your life? How does discernment show up in your walk of faith?

Subscribe now

Join me for a June Quiet Day

Book Corner:
What I’ve Been Reading Lately2

via library loan:
Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy
Wild Dark Shore is beautiful, harrowing and at times difficult -- in short, it’s a lot like its island setting. The characters in this book live unusual lives on a remote island. Dominic Salt and his children Raff, Fen and Orly live in a former lighthouse across the island from a group of researchers. Rowan washes ashore when the boat bringing her to see her husband goes under. The setting of Shearwater Island is as much a character in this book as the people, the animals and the seeds. No other author I’ve encountered writes environmental fiction like McConaghy does. Her imaginings of our near future are terrifyingly realistic. Don’t let that stop you from reading this novel. It’s worth every minute of your time.

Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan
Claire Keegan’s writing is like drinking refreshing water when you’re parched and didn’t know it. Small Things Like These is about something not small at all - who will we be when we encounter wrong being done by those in power? May I have the grace to be like the protagonist Bill Furlong.

Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke
What a book this is! I could feel the way healthy faith can be twisted into something dark and harmful. I could feel the resistance to re-shaping those twisted beliefs back into something honest and true. This novel pulls back the curtain on the cult of influencers and the gulf between online life and real life. Somehow this book manages to be entertaining, readable and deeply disturbing all at the same time.

The Escape Game by Marissa Meyer and Tamara Moss
I’ve been a fan of Marissa Meyer since Cinder and this book did not disappoint. I loved the escape room/reality TV mash up and the puzzles were fun and engaging even if most of them went right over my head. If you like a good puzzle and/or escape rooms, this one’s a fun and quick read.

via audiobook:
Work in Progress by James Martin, SJ
I’m enjoying this look at Martin’s life before he became a Jesuit. It’s interesting to see the things God used in Martin’s life and ponder the ones being used in my own life.

May you have the grace this week to not swallow the questions, but ask them. May you have the grace to discern and trust your own heart.

Peace & Grace,
Shannon

My husband and I are part of a small group at our church. We began meeting back in the fall and have been slowly working our way through the 5 H’s: History, Heroes, Hard Times, High Points and Hopes for the future. I like the idea of getting to know each other this way instead of jumping feet first into telling our full story one at a time. It feels like we’ve built some trust to hold the vulnerability of “hard times” by the time that rolls around because we’ve each shared twice before getting to that.

As we’ve reached the end of this process, I’ve been surprised by how difficult it’s been to tackle the last H: Hope. Some of us have been hesitant to hope aloud. Others have been unsure of exactly what they do or don’t hope for. I’ve been wondering if hope actually requires more vulnerability than sharing our hard times.

If a friend asked your hopes for the future, what might you share? How would it differ if your spouse or partner asked you the same question?

Saying our hopes aloud feels a little like scattering seeds. When we scatter seeds on the ground, they are no longer safe in our pockets. This means they can grow — but they can also be plucked up, swept away or burnt by the sun. When we leave our hopes in our pockets, we can keep them warm and fresh. We can pull them out in privacy, dust them off and return them to a safe place.

But if we’re keeping our hopes tucked safely away, maybe we aren’t freeing ourselves to pursue them. If we don’t allow our hope to see the light of day, can we fully invest our actions in the pursuit of making it a reality?

Are you more prone to dream aloud or hold hope close? How does it feel to share a deep held hope with someone you love?

It’s been my experience that it’s harder to hold hopes for myself in some seasons than others. I’ve recently spent some time with mothers of young children and it brings back memories of the immediacy of those days of heavy duty mothering. There were seasons when all I could hope for was to get each girl to where she needed to be on time. (Maybe I’m exaggerating a bit, but it felt that way.)

In Braiding Sweetgrass, Robin Wall Kimmerer talks about a spiral of caregiving. When our children are young, our caregiving is, of necessity, tightly concentrated in our own family. But as those children grow and age, we are free to share our nurturing, our care, our gifts with the broader world - the circle expands.

In contrast to the aforementioned young mothers, I recently had a conversation with someone on the cusp of retirement. I asked about plans for the future and realized as I listened that retirement is a vista of hopes, but also potholes of unexplored possibilities.

What stage of life are you in right now? Where can do you find hope - front and center, around the edges or somewhere in between?

Subscribe now

Join me for a June Quiet Day

Book Corner:
What I’ve Been Reading Lately

via library loan:
I Could Be Famous: Stories by Sydney Rende
I enjoyed this collection of stories. They featured a wide range of female main characters, many of whom were obsessed with fame in various ways. I found the quality weakened near the end of the collection -- it's hard to end on two stories that I didn't enjoy. That being said, I liked the way Rende got into the heads of her main characters. There were moments of shocked recognition in me, which is always a sign the writing is realistic.

Nobody’s Baby by Olivia Waite
This is another winner by Olivia Waite. The world she’s created on The Fairweather is fascinating and I’m on board for every book that takes us there.

Kin by Tayari Jones
I loved Niecy and Annie and I loved their story. Kin follows these two “cradle friends” from childhood to young adulthood. Life in Honeysuckle, Louisiana is not as sweet as it sounds like it would be -- especially for two motherless Black girls living in the 1950s and 60s. Jones’s writing in this book is fluid and honest, making me want to keep reading and reading without pause. Family is more than those we are related to by blood; if you’ve ever doubted that, this book will make you a believer. I hope Jones is already at work on another novel that continues the story of one of the many great side characters in this world!

My listening has been concentrated on podcasts recently. My favorites have been Amy Poehler & Brandi Carlile and some episodes of Two Jesuits Talking.

May you have the strength and courage to examine your hopes in the light of day and share them so they may take root and grow.

Peace & Grace,
Shannon

Happy Eastertide - the season when the weather invites us outside to linger and our commitments prevent lingering for any length of time. Like Holy Saturday, we live in the tension during this season. If you’re not from a liturgical background, you might be wondering what on earth I’m talking about: Holy Saturday? What is that?

Holy Saturday is the day before Easter. It’s the day when we remember that Jesus didn’t die and immediately rise again. He was dead for three days. Three long days when his disciples fled home. Three long days when the women waited by his tomb. Three long days when everyone who loved him wondered if it had all been a lie. Did their eyes deceive them when those miracles happened? Was the community he created destined to die out?

On Holy Saturday, church begins in the dark, in the waiting of those three long days. But then a fire is lit. And that fire kindles the Paschal candles, which kindles all of the candles in the sanctuary. In a matter of moments, the light is fighting back the darkness.

But the darkness is still there as we remember through scripture and song the story of creation and the mess humanity has made of the world despite God’s attempts to show us the way.

Where is there tension in your life right now? Where are you experiencing pulls in competing directions?

Holy Week in the Episcopal church is a bigger deal than Christmas. We have services on Thursday, Friday, Saturday1 and Sunday. We gather to remember Jesus washing the feet of his disciples and instituting the sacrament of the Eucharist. We walk the stations of the cross in the footsteps of Jesus. And we gather in the dark to await his return.

Like the earliest disciples, perhaps we gather with some doubt in our hearts. Is this story too good to be true? Is Good Friday where the story will end this year? Why does life feel so hard if the resurrection is true?

This Easter was an especially fraught one. A friend waited for her mother-in-law to be released from the hospital into hospice. A daughter wondered why God allowed her pain. A war rages on with lives being lost and vitriol flying.

How do we hope on Easter Saturday - and every day of our lives - when there is so much pain and heartbreak? We hope because Easter Sunday does come.

Christ has died. Christ has risen. Christ will come again.

When we are living in the tension, our job is to notice when we are being pulled in one direction and keep our balance. To counter every news headline, read a chapter of a novel. To mourn loss, take a hike and notice buds on trees. To make it through desolation, look back on the consolations you’ve received.

Where do your Good Friday experiences threaten to overwhelm your Easter Sunday ones? What practices help you keep your balance?

Easter is more than a day. It is a season that leads us to the feast of Pentecost when we celebrate the arrival of the Holy Spirit. Eastertide invites us to unfurl our picnic blankets, our beach towels and our very bodies. It beckons us to go slowly, soak up the sunshine and look for renewal. Maybe the only time you get outside right now is to pull weeds or watch soccer matches. If so, may you have the grace to feel the sun on your face.

Maybe your calendar is empty and you long for a walk with a friend. Maybe your calendar is full and you long for a free weekend. May you listen to your longings and correct course where you can.

What is Eastertide inviting you to do?

Subscribe now

I've updated my website - take a look!

Book Corner:
What I’ve Been Reading Lately

via library loan:
Full Dark House by Christopher Fowler
I enjoyed the ways this book was different from a typical mystery: going back and forth between the first case these two policemen solved together and a modern crime. I did find the pacing a bit slow both at the beginning and the end. That being said, I enjoyed the time in 1940s London and the characters in this book were ones that I'd like to know better. I'll be returning for more of this series.

Foster by Claire Keegan
Foster is short, but beautiful in every way. It made me nostalgic for days when my daughters were young. It made me sad for the circumstances some families live in. It made me grateful to have three daughters. It made me feel. Claire Keegan is a masterful writer.

Dominion by Addie E. Citchens
Whew. This book is good AND challenging. Citchens creates a believable world and cast of characters in Dominion. I loved that the narrators were women while the story highlighted the ways men young and old used violence and sex to try to dominate. Narrators Priscilla and Diamond were neither one blameless and I found myself feeling conflicted at how the ending both gave me what I wanted and highlighted a whole different kind of dominion still at play in the South. Trigger warnings galore for this one - don't read it if you're sensitive is probably the best I can offer.

via audiobook:
Mother Mary Comes to Me by Arundhati Roy
This was a beautiful memoir about two complicated women - Arundhati Roy and her mother Mary Roy. I loved that the author was able to see through her mother's terrible behavior to the love underneath it and I learned so much about the modern history of India.

In this first week of Eastertide, may you feel the hope of new life.

Peace & Grace,
Shannon

My habit of listening has made me aware that I’m not alone in my backyard — on the contrary, there are sometimes a dozen different kinds of birds singing and sharing space with me. One evening on the porch, I heard a sound, pulled out my phone and opened the Merlin app to confirm what I was hearing: a barred owl nearby.1

I’ve also learned over time that some birds are here nearly every day (cardinals) and others come and go (starlings, mockingbirds). This makes me long to pay attention so I’ll see who I’m sharing the world with in real time — and not miss little offerings from the Spirit.

How did your Lent go? Who do you share your world with? What helps you stay present to all that is going on around you?

Concurrent with listening for birds, I pulled out a Christmas gift from my eldest daughter. It somehow felt right to paint birds while listening to them. Let it be noted that I used the term paint in the loosest possible sense. I have never used watercolors before. I am a novice in every way. But after painting a bird or two, I came across this podcast about monastic wisdom for our inner artists. Near the end of the podcast when discussing humility, the guest asks, “Can we be willing to make bad art?” I immediately thought of my little watercolor birds and decided they are an invitation to just that.

There are many other invitations in this podcast. I’m hoping to re-listen to it on a walk soon, but for now I’m holding humility and bad art in my heart.

Are you willing to make bad art or bad something? What is a new thing you can approach with humility and curiosity?

I’ve still been watching the silver maple in the backyard, but it’s been slower to leaf that I anticipated. In the meantime, I’ve watched our Japanese magnolia put on its springtime show:

Like many of nature’s offerings, these blooms are a fleeting gift. This year they were cut short by a late freeze that turned the blossoms from magenta to brown. I was thankful I documented their beauty while it was here and I’ve been delighted to notice a few blooms post-freeze.

What have been the fleeting gifts of Lent (and spring) for you? What will you treasure as the seasons move on and spring flows and then ebbs?

Subscribe now

Book Corner:
What I’ve Been Reading Lately

via home library:
I Met a Traveller in an Antique Land by Connie Willis
When looking for something light to read, it became clear those aren't the books my husband and I buy. Murder mysteries or thrillers? He has loads of those. Faith memoirs or heart-wrenching novels? I buy those. Luckily, he wandered into the room with his sci-fi books and came back with this one. It wasn't my favorite Willis book ever (what will top Blackout and All Clear??), but it was a nice diversion when I needed something lighter than my normal reading fare.

via library loan:
Out of the Loop by Katie Siegel
Time loop + mystery = I’m in// I liked the author’s handling of the time loop. Instead of keeping the reader stuck in the loop with Amie, the main character, the chronology of the book moved back and forth in time. This wasn’t challenging for me as a reader and mimics the experience of a time loop in some ways. Where the book fell short was in romcom portion of the novel: if you’re in it for the light mystery and time loop, give this a read. If you’re wanting a queer romcom, there are better options out there.

The Lost Story by Meg Shaffer
I loved this fairy tale set in the woods of West Virginia. I loved the main characters Emilie, Jeremy and Rafe. I loved the rules of the magic. I loved the storyteller interlude chapters and the way this tale was told. Was it a bit predictable in places? Yes, but what fairy tale isn't? I'm sharing this one immediately with my grown daughters - I think they'll all love it for various reasons.

via audiobook:
Mother Mary Comes to Me by Arundhati Roy
I’m a bit embarrassed to admit I’ve not read The God of Small Things, but I’ll be correcting that soon after finishing this memoir by its author. Arundhati Roy was born in 1960 in India - a world away from my own Alabama birth in 1972. I’m enjoying this look at life from her generation and her particular vantage point in history. This memoir is read by the author, which is enhancing my listening experience.

In these final days of Holy Week, may your Lenten gifts be with you in the sorrow and the joy of Easter.

Peace & Grace,
Shannon

Maybe as my flesh weakens there is more room for the Spirit to grow in me. I certainly can rely less on my body than I could twenty years ago. Perhaps one of the gifts of aging is the invitation to be aware that it was only ever an illusion of control.

What’s your relationship to your body right now? What’s your relationship to the Spirit? How do you see them interact or intertwine?

Paul’s words on flesh and spirit bring me to Lazarus in a roundabout way. I’ve been wondering what Lazarus’s body felt like in those moments after Jesus brought him back from death. His hands, feet and face were still bound in his burial cloths, for goodness sake! Could he see? hear? smell his own stench of death? Or were his senses heightened for having lost them, only to regain them?

We aren’t told how old Lazarus was when he died, so I don’t know if his body had begun the slow breakdown of life after forty1. I do know that if I spent four days immobile (or dead) and then had to find my way out of a cave wrapped in grave clothes, it would not be pretty. My back would hurt, my hips would be stiff and my mind would be a blur. I might emerge stumbling and squinting into the light… only to find a not fully welcoming audience.

What do you see if you enter this scene in your imagination? Where are you? Who are you? How would your body feel in the circumstances of Lazarus?

And then I get to the bigger questions: How was Lazarus’s spirit after these events? Did he remember his death and dying? He was sick before he died - we know this because his sisters sent word to Jesus. Was whatever ailed him gone after four days he laid in the tomb? Or did he emerge coughing, limping, hot with fever?

In my imagination, whatever sickness killed Lazarus is now gone. His body isn’t restored to some younger state2 but it is restored to health as well as life. I imagine Lazarus realizing gradually “I am alive and well.”

After he’s grounded and back in his body, does Lazarus comprehend the miraculous state he now occupies? Does he know he is back from the dead after four days? Where was he for those four days? If we assume Lazarus was in heaven, how did it feel to be back in his frail human body in this broken world after experiencing that?

My imagination here is influenced by Buffy the Vampire Slayer3. Yes, really. In one of the best television episodes of all time, Buffy reveals that when her friends brought her back from the grave, they tore her out of heaven. The apt penultimate song is “Where Do We Go From Here?” Indeed. What comes after a revelation like that?

If Lazarus, like Buffy, was in heaven, maybe those first steps out of the grave weren’t eager but baffled. Maybe a part of him shared his sisters’ joy while another part mourned leaving where he had been. In time, I hope Lazarus came to see those four days as evidence of what awaited him. But I imagine it took a while to reacclimatize to a body that ached and walked the ground in this broken world.

Where do you imagine Lazarus was for those four days? What do you imagine he knew or didn’t know upon return to his earthly body?

Maybe when you’re dead, time is nothing. But in my earthly experience, four days can feel like a long time. Lazarus was dead for four days — and he waited before death for a Jesus who was called, but didn’t come. I wonder if Lazarus forgot that waiting after he was brought back to life or whether he pulled Jesus aside at some point to ask exactly why he waited.

I’m in a season of waiting right now — and not only waiting, but active rejection. I’ve been looking for part-time work for nearly a year to no avail. I miss administrative work. I miss the structure work provides to my week. But I want, above all, to do with my life what Jesus would have me do. I want to co-labor not for my own resume highlights but to make this world a slightly better place.

And so I wait.

Daily, I die small deaths of ego and wait for a new me to emerge. If Lazarus can live after what he went through in those four days, I can keep waiting.

What are you waiting to birth in your life? Are there aspects that need to die for that birth to happen?

Subscribe now

Book Corner:
What I’ve Been Reading Lately

via personal library:
The Spellshop by Sarah Beth Durst
There was a lot I liked about this book: the characters, the sweet magical world, the plot twists at the end, the cozy vibe. My main complaint is that nothing happened for the first 150 pages and then a lot happened; the pacing was all over the place! That being said, this is a good read when you just want a little escapism.

My Favorite Half-Night Stand by Christina Lauren
I'm struggling a bit with concentrating on more serious books, so I grabbed this book from my bookshelf, where it has languished for years unread. It was good timing for it - a bout of insomnia meant I read it quickly. I particularly liked the characters in this book and that it didn't center on just a couple, but a friend group. Heads up that the female main character makes some unhinged decisions and just keeps doubling down on bad choices. Still... it was a lighthearted, easy look at love in the digital era.

via audiobook:
Born Standing Up by Steve Martin
I don't recall how I came across this audiobook, but I've needed some lighter fare lately and figured this would fit the bill. Yes and no. The book wasn't quite as lighthearted as I'd like, but it did let me get to know Steve Martin a bit better and imagine the world he grew up in - 1960s California. TW: It took me right out of the flow of the book to hear casual mentions of Bill Cosby - that part of the book did not age well.

Whether you are waiting, grieving or fully alive this week, may you feel the companionship of Jesus.

Peace & Grace,
Shannon

As weak human beings, you were once empty and full of darkness, but now that Creator’s Spirit lives in you, you are beings full of light. Walk in the light, and all things good and right and true will shine out from you. This will prove you are his children—the ones who seek for ways to make his heart glad.

Since Sunday, I’ve been pondering what it looks like to live as beings full of light. I think one option is to let our inner light shine through. This might look like a text to someone who comes to mind, a smile to a stranger or a prayer for a friend of a friend. Sometimes these things don’t feel like enough and the light in us longs to become more substantial via a meal for a friend, aid for a neighbor or volunteering with a ministry.

When our light runs low and we feel like the weak human beings we once were, we can tune in to the beauty around us. What color is the sky outside your window? What signs of life do you see? How can you make your world a bit more beautiful?

How is your light-meter right now? What avenues open when you think about shining that light? What wells can you draw from to strengthen your inner light?

Alongside Ephesians, I’ve been thinking about what St. Teresa of Avila said:

Christ has no body but yours,
No hands, no feet on earth but yours,
Yours are the eyes with which he looks
Compassion on this world,
Yours are the feet with which he walks to do good,
Yours are the hands, with which he blesses all the world.
Yours are the hands, yours are the feet,
Yours are the eyes, you are his body.
Christ has no body now but yours,
No hands, no feet on earth but yours,
Yours are the eyes with which he looks
compassion on this world.
Christ has no body now on earth but yours.

This prayer is one of my favorites to offer when I’m writing weekly thank you’s to volunteers for a ministry at our church that serves the unhoused in our city. I love the way Teresa invites us to see our bodies as part of the body of Jesus. She shows us what to do with the light.

The light enables us to do good, bless the world and look with compassion. The light shines as we wash dishes, make beds or drive carpool. The light shines as we look up from our screens to make eye contact with another human being. The light shines when we let someone in while stuck in traffic.

How have you been the hands and feet of Jesus lately? How does the world look when you look with his eyes?

Subscribe now

Book Corner:
What I’ve Been Reading Lately

The Marlow Murder Club by Robert Thorogood
It’s been a super slow reading stretch for me. I just haven’t been able to concentrate on a plot. But my eldest daughter handed me this library book and said I would like it. She was right. Judith, Becks, Suzie and Tanika are a delightfully odd group. I enjoyed the setting of Marlow and will read another in this series when I want a pleasant, clever mystery.

Murder by Memory by Olivia Waite
This novella is set in a delightful world: a spaceship hurtling between here and there, where memories are stored to be placed in a new version of one's body when the old body inevitably breaks down. I not only enjoyed the world, but also loved ship's detective Dorothy Gentleman. I'll be back for more of this series.

A Beautiful Family by Jennifer Travelyan
This book is more tension than resolution. If you want to spend an entire book waiting for something to happen only to arrive at the end, this is the book for you.

Your body is a vessel of light. No matter what other way you think of your body, you are a being of light.

May we look for the light, be the light and seek ways to make glad the heart of Jesus this week.

And if you find yourself in darkness, light a candle for those there with you.

Peace & Grace,
Shannon

Recently, I’ve had several “God sightings” that might have passed unnoticed in another season of life. In this particular season, I had the grace of eyes to see them.

The Suscipe

A few weeks ago, I wrote about how a prayer of St. Ignatius started coming to mind as I ended my prayer times. I’ve leaned into this by writing the prayer in my journal each day. I was surprised to discover that Pray As You Go is ending their Lenten offerings with this same prayer.

I was on my way to a spiritual direction group on Ash Wednesday and listened to their daily podcast. As they began the Suscipe as the closing prayer, I gasped aloud. It felt like the Spirit had gone before me in planting this prayer in my heart and mind in advance of Lent.

Each time I’ve listened to Pray As You Go during Lent, it has felt like a wink from God when they wrap up the time with the Suscipe.

Wisdom

Last week, I arrived a few minutes early to lead an evening group. I typically bring prayer tiles with me and have directees draw a tile before we begin our time together. What I don’t always do is draw a tile for myself, but that night, I did. Alone in the room, I felt around in my bag of tiles and pulled out the wisdom tile pictured above.

As I started to place it in the bag, something connected in my mind: our theme for that evening’s group was:

Instead of putting the tile back in the bag, I left it out to show the group when they arrived. Drawing the wisdom tile on this particular night felt like God reassuring me that what I had to offer would be enough and had been given to me to share.

Join me for a March Quiet Day

Mother Jones

Last week at Bible Study, our opening activity was to draw a slip of paper from a bag and choose one of the three people listed. On the slips of paper were people that Time designated as having shaped the twentieth century. One of the names on my paper was Mother Jones. Her name was vaguely familiar, but I couldn’t have said who she was or what she did.

Last night I had insomnia. Around 4:30 am, I gave up and got out of bed. I grabbed my book from the bedside table and headed to the living room. I was reading The Women of the Copper Country by Mary Doria Russell. It’s set in Calumet, Michigan during 1913. A teenager prays to Catherine of Siena for intercession during a miner’s strike. Her prayers are answered when Mother Jones writes that she is coming to visit.

Even now, this particular evidence of God in my life makes me feel a bit crazy. It’s not that I think God cares what I’m reading. Nor do I think the Almighty is trying to fill the gaps in my history knowledge. Instead it feels like another wink from above. A kind way of saying, “I see you, Shannon.”

None of these things are “big” things. I could have easily missed every one of these invitations. But when I am looking for God, I tend to see God. I suspect the same is true for you. After all, this is why we’re told to set our minds on things above in scripture: we find what we seek.

Our world feels overwhelming to me in many ways right now. News of war, shootings and ongoing strife weigh heavy on my heart. One way I cope with this is to look for the little ways God is at work… recently, that’s been through the suscipe, a wisdom tile and Mother Jones.

If you pause and look back over the last week or so, where has God been offering little glimpses of love and care for you? If you look, you will find them.

Subscribe now

Book Corner:
What I’ve Been Reading Lately

via library loan:
Bog Queen by Anna North
Bog Queen started strong. I liked the three points of view presented: the moss, Agnes and an unnamed Druid woman from 50ish BCE. Each point of view was intriguing to me and I came to really enjoying hearing from the moss. And yet... the ending kind of petered out instead of actually concluding. I enjoyed this glimpse into a different time and the world of moss, but I was ultimately left wanting more.

The Women of the Copper Country by Mary Doria Russell
The Sparrow by Russell is a book I will never forget. I haven’t read her recent offerings like Doc and Epitaph, but I came across this The Women of the Copper Country recently and wanted to give it a try. I’m enjoying the historical setting in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and I’m honestly a bit shocked at how relevant the stories of these copper miners feel today. It’s a great reminder that all people deserve dignity.

via audiobook:
The Soul of Desire by Curt Thompson
I read Anatomy of the Soul by Thompson two years ago and really enjoyed the blend of faith and science. I’m finding the same to be true of this book.

May we have eyes to see and ears to hear this week all that God is offering us out of his abundant love.

Shannon

Forty days can feel like a long time. One Lent I gave up caffeine - talk about a long stretch of days. This year I am looking for birds, watching branches and noticing the budding blooms. These practices are significantly more pleasant than forgoing my morning coffee, but I find they are shaping me in unexpected ways. This is mainly because of how slowly this practice asks me to go (and also perhaps points me to to fact that change doesn’t always have to be painful?).

I am discovering that I can’t find a bird on command. I have to slow down. Look. Listen. Wait. Sometimes even then, there are no birds.

Thankfully the tree stands steady in my backyard, branches ready to be seen anytime. But those branches change ever-so-slowly. While I’m sure they will look different by the time Easter rolls around, the day-over-day change is nearly imperceptible.

Is your Lenten practice inviting you to slow down, speed up or something in between? Does it feel hard like giving up caffeine or easy like looking for birds?

Years ago, I read that God moves at a glacial pace. That image anchored itself into my heart. Most of the time it’s a comfort to me that God moves slowly because I do, too. It would be hard for me to feel safe with a God who expected me to change quickly and significantly. Instead, I feel like Jesus moves just a few degrees away from where I am and asks me to reorient myself towards him. Like a cosmic dance, this happens over and over until I’m not facing the way I was ten years ago - but I only shifted little by little to find Jesus.

It can feel comforting to move slowly, synchronizing myself with Jesus. But that comfort can sometimes shift into feeling like constraint. I am tired of waiting right now. My life has swung from days packed to the brim to a calendar with just a smattering of appointments and sessions. I long for my mind to be more occupied than it is. I long for the skills I have to be used. I am praying for God to establish the work of my hands, but under my breath I am asking him to do so quickly.

Where is God moving in your life right now? Do you experience God’s pace as glacial or something else?

One day last week when I used my Merlin app to identify the birdsong in my yard, it found both a bird that’s a harbinger of spring (Tufted Titmouse) and a winter bird (Junco). That’s February in Middle Tennessee. And perhaps that’s worth considering in my own life as well:

What are the markers of a season that is ending?

What are the signs of new life?

Where is the beauty waiting to be seen, heard, noticed?

May I have the grace to keep waiting, to keep looking for Jesus, to adjust my gaze and my stance ever so slightly.

Subscribe now

Join me for a March Quiet Day

Book Corner:
What I’ve Been Reading Lately

via library loan:
The Greenest Branch by PK Adams
I love Hildegard of Bingen -- she's one of my favorite saints. What this book taught me is that even with a great concept, good writing is needed. The writing wasn't exactly poor in this book, but it was cumbersome. The author continually explained why we were getting information that wasn't directly from the first person narrator of Hildegard. Why not use an omniscient POV instead? Or accept the limitations of the narration you've chosen. If you want a novel about Hildegard, read Illuminations instead.

Vigil by George Saunders
My husband had this book in his “return to library” stack, but I grabbed it to read first. Vigil is the story of a man visited by Jill, whose role is to offer comfort in the transition from life to death. I enjoyed this meditation on life as death draws near. What might I regret? How might I change things now to live — and die — without regret?

The Half Moon by Mary Beth Keane
This is my second read by Mary Beth Keane and I find that her books carry an emotional weight that is compelling, but leaves me feeling a bit heavy. The Half Moon is the story of Malcolm and Jess. The setting mostly revolves around The Half Moon, a bar Malcolm owns. In their marriage, they deal with infertility and ensuing treatment, infidelity and broken dreams. This isn't a light read, but is a good character study of the life of a marriage.

via audiobook:
You Are the One You’ve Been Waiting For by Richard Schwartz
I enjoyed this book and learned the basics of internal family systems from it. However, I *highly* recommend that you read this book with your eyeballs, not your ears. I would have benefited from answering the prompts in writing or at least pausing to consider them more deeply than an audiobook allowed.

May we have the grace this week to look for the beauty of the Lord, no matter the pace of life we are living.

Shannon