My grandma’s legacy of the importance of a beautiful home
My grandmother was diagnosed with cancer five times. That’s right, five. The last time was in May of 2020. A year or so before that, she moved closer to my…
It’s time to reclaim the quest for Eden
I once read in Father Karl Stehlin’s “The Nature, Dignity, and Mission of Women” that when God created women, “He made her with a memory of Eden.” It is for…
Seeking beauty as the important work of the evangelist
“Give yourself the gift of one beautiful thing, daily,” I remember hearing this advice in a radio interview years ago. It doesn’t matter if it’s a bouquet you pick on…
When you see holiness in a life well lived
Five years ago, on the eve of the feast of the Assumption, my grandfather passed from this life. A fresh college graduate, I had spent the previous few months living…
Uncovering the hidden blessings of the melancholic
There is a popular book, written by Art and Laraine Bennett, that every Catholic should read. In “The Temperament God Gave You,” the authors identify four human temperaments that have…
My incredible pilgrimage on the Appalachian Trail
The peak still loomed far above, but with trekking poles tucked under my arm and eyes glued to the top right corner of my phone, I hardly noticed the steady…
Every hair on your head
I never considered myself pretty. While I didn’t think I was particularly ugly, I simply thought I was ordinary, if I thought about it at all. I never was the…
The feminine call to creativity
Within every one of us is an impulse to create — to tiptoe into a dim, dawn-lit kitchen before the children arise to shape, score and bake a loaf of…
What the setting sun has to teach us about God’s love
My love language is skies. This works, I like to quip, when you’re dating the God of the Universe — and Our Lord has never tired of giving me glorious…
Beauty was my light in the darkness
The past several years have not been void of darkness. Pandemics, political turmoil, economic wars, actual wars, isolation, depression — and I think there were murder hornets somewhere in between….