Holiness in our Midst

March 2025

Story Circle Prompt: How do you listen for God’s voice in your daily life? What answers have you “heard?” How might you incorporate spending time with God each day during Lent?

A highlight of my life has been the privilege of studying spiritual formation under Father Bob Dufford. As resident priest at the Creighton University Retreat Center in southwest Iowa, site of many of my classes, he has been my spiritual director for several retreats. He also happens to be an internationally acclaimed composer of liturgical music, including the wondrous hymn “Be Not Afraid.” 

This month’s spiritual question comes from a conversation with “Father Bob,” as I’ve come to know him. I met with him for a few moments of orientation before my first retreat in late July of 2022. He asked me what I would like to focus on during a three-day silent retreat. I told him that I would like to spend some quality time with my day planner. He suggested, instead, that I spend time with the Planner of My Days! After all, he asserted, God could have created a “finished” world. Only by spending time with God would I come to understand the purpose for which I was created and know what to include in my schedule!

During the upcoming Lenten season, which begins on March 5th this year, I plan to spend five minutes each day just listening to God and recording the insights I receive. I would challenge you to do the same, in addition or instead of other Lenten practices.

A note about the times we are in: On any given day, there is someone in my life who doesn’t think I am the greatest thing since sliced bread. Is this true of you, too? We are placed in imperfect families, workplaces, congregations, and, dare I say, denominations! Therefore, it is important to spend time just basking in being Beloved of God.

FOR PERSONAL AND JOURNAL REFLECTION:

Read the meditation above and reflect on this challenge in your journal: Try incorporating five minutes each day during the upcoming Lent season to listening to God or just being with God. Use a timer for this spiritual practice. Record your findings. At the end of 40 days, reflect on what you have experienced. 

FOR GROUP STUDY: 

Read aloud Session 150. Ask each person to reflect on the Story Circle Prompt.

February 2025

Story Circle Prompt: Who do you look to as you try to make sense of these times of accelerated change? That is, who are your “sense makers” now?

It is mid-morning in late January 2025. A news commentator has just alluded to “four years of change” during the first four days of the new administration. So many executive orders and memoranda are being issued that my head is spinning. Who, what will guide my daily steps when I can barely keep track of the news? Who are my “sense makers” now? Five answers come to mind:

1. As I write this, the many flags in my town are still at half-mast in memory of the late President Jimmy Carter. I can still picture his intentional peace-making efforts and see him volunteering, helping build those 4,300 homes for Habitat for Humanity. And I am empowered to look for opportunities to do good along my path. His life stands as a quiet testimony to perseverance and as a model for leaving a legacy: Do things that stand the test of time every day over the course of many years. 

2. We have just celebrated, coincidentally on Inauguration Day, the late Martin Luther King, Jr. The title of his last book (“Where Do We Go from Here? Chaos or Community?”) frames the right question to ask during these times. Overall, the memory of MLK’s life helps keep me in line, compels me to choose daily actions that benefit the common good.

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3. My Holy Bible is always at hand, along with its wisdom interpreted by two denominations, the Church of the Brethren and the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). Both denominations are determined to speak truth to power, as they try to guide congregations in the ways of Jesus. I will be listening.

4. A tight group, which I call my “counsel of friends,” consists of about a dozen persons whose words are always available when I get upset or feel alone about the state of the world. They are concerned about “the State of the Janis.” I will turn to them often, mostly over lunches, in the coming year to make sense of the world we are being presented with. 

5. The advice of a corporate mentor comes back to guide me. I once told this leader: “This is a time of great uncertainty for me.” He countered, incredulously: “Do you expect there to come a time of certainty?!” In the same conversation, I also said to him, “I don’t know where to begin…” He said, simply: “Do the next thing at hand, very, very well.”

FOR PERSONAL AND JOURNAL REFLECTION:

Read the meditation above and reflect on this question in your journal: Who has helped you make sense of life in years past? How and when was this person helpful? Who is guiding you now?

FOR GROUP STUDY:
Read aloud Session 149. Ask each person to reflect on the Story Circle Prompt.

January 2025

Story Circle Prompt: What is your “Star Word” for 2025?

Epiphany is the day in the church calendar when the visit of the Magi to the Christ Child is remembered. When Jan. 6th does not fall on a Sunday, it is celebrated on the Sunday before (this year on Jan. 5). Many Protestant churches have encouraged congregants to seek a Star Word on Epiphany to guide them into deeper relationship with God during the coming year, just as the Magi followed the star to find their long-awaited Messiah. The Burton Avenue United Church in Barrie, ON, Canada, issued this explanation on its website: “The word Epiphany comes from a word that means to show, shine forth, appear or be made known. We are also seeking Jesus in our daily lives, trusting that God can and does use many signs to guide us closer to the Divine presence.” 

Interested in finding your Star Word? Perhaps a word already comes to mind that is inviting you. Embrace that word. Or you can find several Star Word Wheels online that you can “spin” to select a word for reflection. You are encouraged to choose the first word you spin to guide you into the New Year.

Recently, I “spun” an online wheel; the first word that came up was season. Because the word found me just a few days before an actual new season began, it seemed a good choice for the upcoming year. I began thinking about how winter represents holding still and waiting when everything is uncertain. Winter is also the season when I can begin planning for projects that will come to fruition later. I can do a writer’s equivalent of poring over seed catalogues: dreaming of new stories to write and ideas to plant! Even though I have entered one of the later adult stages in life, I look forward to facing each new season of 2025 with grace, anticipating that God’s mercies will be new every morning! Are you willing to let God guide you in this way?

FOR PERSONAL AND JOURNAL REFLECTION:

Read the meditation above and reflect on this question in your journal: Have you used a single word to reflect on during past years? Was the process helpful? 

FOR GROUP STUDY: 

Read aloud Session 148. Ask each person to reflect on the Story Circle Prompt.

December 2024

Story Circle Prompt: When did you find silver linings in a season of setbacks? 

This question was prompted by a recent moment of reflection by my pastor, Mary Jane Button-Harrison, at First Christian Church in Ames, IA. She spoke movingly about what she had learned the past weeks when she was the one requiring help after a series of what she called “setbacks.” Like breaking her foot and being unable to drive, while still facing increasing needs of extended family members and ongoing pastoral duties. The silver linings in this experience? She said it has forced her to be more in in tune with her own mind, body, and spirit. She has also been overwhelmed with gratitude as members of the congregation have provided transportation needs and stepped into speaking roles, some preaching for the first time! 

As for myself, in this current season of political unrest and uncertainty, I am finding silver linings in getting together with others to share my fears, listening to hopeful music, and practicing Sabbath days.

FOR PERSONAL AND JOURNAL REFLECTION:

• Reflect on this story: Dr. John Buchanan, pastor at Fourth Presbyterian Church in Chicago from 1985 to 2012, shared this story from a nursery school classroom in the Chicago suburbs. The teacher asked her class if they knew what the season before Christmas was called. One child raised his hand and answered “Advil!” In your journal, answer the questions: When have you had a “Season of Advil”? What blessings came from it?

FOR GROUP STUDY: 

• Read aloud Session CXLVII. Ask each person to reflect on the Story Circle Prompt.

November 2024

Story Circle Prompt: What will you say when asked to count your blessings at this year’s Thanksgiving table?

Thinking back over this tumultuous year of wars, elections, natural disasters, and personal setbacks, I can still count many blessings. I am blessed with:

• Worthy work in an assisted living center that satisfies my sense of belonging and is led by a supervisor so welcoming and kind that it often makes me want to cry.

• Friends and family who not only love me, but also, even better, really like me.

• A church family that wraps its strength around me when I’m flailing, celebrates my successes, and challenges me to keep growing.

• Causes that call my name: hunger, homelessness, and disabilities awareness.

• Writing platforms that invite me to share my stories and voice my truths, and hopefully encourage others to do the same. 

• A safety net of support from my spiritual direction community,

• A warm sanctuary of a home filled with art and books, and most of all,

• Faith in a God of abundance.

What are your blessings?

FOR PERSONAL AND JOURNAL REFLECTION:

• Read the above reflection. In your journal, reflect on the question:  What are you thankful for this Thanksgiving? Where do you see bounty in your life?

FOR GROUP STUDY: 

• Read aloud Session CXLVI. Ask each person to reflect on the Story Circle Prompt.

October 2024

Story Circle Prompt: When have you experienced healing through sound?

If I had encountered this question before last weekend (May 20-22, 2024), I would have referenced tuning into birdsong on vacation, listening to symphonies, or hearing my favorite children’s books (being read to me by friends during chemo treatments). But I was introduced to “sound bathing” at a Northern Plains District Women’s Retreat titled “Stories of Faith.” The experience was unexpectedly relaxing and healing, especially in a setting where we were already telling our stories and reflecting on hearing God’s call in our lives.

Our guide, Deb Jennings, led us in a meditative experience of being “bathed” in sound waves produced by an elaborate array of chimes, rattles, gongs, singing bowls, percussion and other healing instruments. She operates a business called Sounds for the Soul, that transports participants to other worlds, places, and times. In the space of a half hour, I “travelled” in my mind to foreign lands and children’s playgrounds, and revisited old memories and gained new perspectives. Possibilities called to me as I caught wind of ancient wisdom. 

Count me in as one who wants to go to Sound Land again.

FOR PERSONAL AND JOURNAL REFLECTION:

• Read the above reflection. In your journal, reflect on the question: When or where have you been thrilled by a sound, or sounds?

FOR GROUP STUDY: 

• Read aloud Session CXLV. Ask each person to reflect on the Story Circle Prompt.

September 2024

Story Circle Prompt: Share a “back to school” story.

My very first day of school was already memorable by the time the Lifetime Lessons occurred. I had grinned big for my father’s first day-of-school immortalization (taken with a home movie camera), climbed up the steps to get on the orange school bus, and tucked my eight-pack Crayola box and Big Chief wide-lined tablet into my own desk.

I was already getting the hang of going to Kindergarten at Fernald (IA) Consolidated School. Then my teacher, Mrs. Ruth Nelson, walked around to each of us, holding a nickel, a penny and a dime in her outstretched hand. “Which one of these coins do you think is worth more?” she asked. 

Of course, I knew the answer: “The biggest one is worth more,” I shouted, along with my little classmates.

“No,” she said quietly, “the dime, the littlest coin, is worth the most.” 

“That can’t be,” I said loudly. I told her she was “full of beans,” my family’s way of saying a person was just plain wrong. I went home and told my parents what Mrs. Nelson had said and what I told her. Maybe they could set her straight, I reasoned. Needless to say, I got the Lecture of my Short Lifetime on Classroom Etiquette. 

Lessons abounded from my first day of school. I challenged authority more diplomatically throughout my school years, and I took to heart the fact that bigger, shinier and flashier surfaces do not always hold the better choices.

FOR PERSONAL AND JOURNAL REFLECTION:

• Read the above reflection. In your journal, reflect on the question: Are there abiding lessons from your school years?

FOR GROUP STUDY: 

• Read aloud Session CXLIV. Ask each person to reflect on the Story Circle Prompt.

August 2024

Story Circle Prompt 1: What is your native language? 

I often tell people that I am bilingual. I speak English and Iowan, I say. I’m right proud of the fact that I have mastered all three major dialects of Iowan: church basement, coffee shop, and truck stop. The everyday eloquence, and, often elegance, of my native tongue thrills me to pieces. Speakers of native Iowan understand that eternal truths are made more memorable punctuated with creative phrasing and vivid word pictures. My maternal grandmother Bessie, bless her soul, was my best teacher. On being tired, she would say: “My get up and go, got up and went.” On the modern world, she would say, “I’d be like a cow on crutches with a computer.” On the pace of life, she would comment, “I was never in enough of a hurry to use a microwave.”

I’ve logged hundreds of hours at church basement potlucks hearing about crops and weather, the farmers saying things like, “I throwed a lot of money in the fields this week.” And I have spent countless mornings in coffee shops listening to old soldiers relive “their” wars. I am still seeking out places where I can listen to and speak the lovely language called Iowan! As I take notes on what I hear and see, I prefer to think of myself as an ethnographer rather than a professional eavesdropper, but the latter is probably closer to the truth. 

………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Story Circle Prompt 2: What other languages do you understand, speak, or use frequently? 

Though I’m not wired to understand or speak foreign languages fluently, I ache to communicate with those from other countries. I just need guides to bridge the gaps. When I was coordinator for mission connections for the Church of the Brethren in the early 2000s, I relied on expert local translators/drivers, especially those who stopped for “emergency” story and photo opportunities. Thus, I was able to accurately record the remarkable efforts of mission workers on the ground in the Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Brazil, Vietnam, Sudan, and Nigeria. Sharing news about these denominational projects, in down-to-earth church basement language, with district and women’s groups, congregations, and camps was gloriously satisfying work. In that assignment, my native Iowan happened to come in handy!

FOR PERSONAL/JOURNAL REFLECTION:

• Read the above reflection. In your journal, reflect on the question: What language would you like to learn, and why?

FOR GROUP STUDY:

• Read aloud Session CXLIII. Ask each person to reflect on the Story Circle Prompt. 

July 2024

Story Circle Prompt: How have you or your family been affected by recent natural disasters? 

I have been deeply touched by recent natural disasters disturbingly close to home. It was frightening enough going through the May 20 EF2 tornado that hopscotched over the assisted living center in Nevada where I was sheltered, but even more so after I learned it touched down mere blocks away.  And it has been disorienting to note the loss of local landmarks from that same storm, places that had grown dear to me on my drives through the countryside. The farmhouse that marked the turn off from Highway 30 onto S27 is gone. Likewise, the picturesque barn that housed llamas was blown off its stone foundation on E29. (The llamas survived they tell me!) The swath of old growth forest in the Indian Creek valley that beautified the drive to Colo on Lincoln Highway is flattened and grey.   

But the intensity of my nostalgic loss pales in comparison to what other Iowans are experiencing. In mid-June, I bore witness to the aftermath of the EF5 Greenfield tornado where a mile-long and mile-wide swath of a town was destroyed. Homes, cars, belongings, neighborhoods, gone! My private grief stirs empathy for those whose loss is unspeakably immense. I long to do something to make everyone and every place whole again. (I am so grateful for Brethren Disaster Ministries, whose volunteers repair or rebuild damaged homes for disaster survivors who cannot recover on their own.) 

This morning (June 25, 2024), I awoke to news of more widespread river flooding in Northwest Iowa. Oh, no! Entire towns under water. Impassable roads. Crops destroyed. Where do I begin to be there for others in such loss when I declare an emergency when my sink is plugged? My beginning points are:

• Being grateful for life itself and asking, “What is mine to do in these situations?” Give time, help, financial contributions?

• Acknowledging and dealing with my own grief and loss, 

• Being willing to “let go” of life as it was to “let in” new life, built on the best of the former things, and

• Moving closer to rather than farther away from God.

What are you called to do in these situations?

FOR PERSONAL/JOURNAL REFLECTION:

• Read the above reflection. In your journal, reflect on the questions: Name a natural disaster, recent or past; how did it affect you or your family? Have you ever been a part of an organized disaster recovery project?

FOR GROUP STUDY:

• Read aloud Session CXLII. Ask each person to reflect on the Story Circle Prompt. 

June 2024

Story Circle Prompt: What was your experience of the April 8, 2024 eclipse…or a previous one?

On May 3, 2024, I wandered out of bed to shut off my phone alarm. Walking past the big picture window in my living room, I stopped cold. I could not see a single thing at exactly 7:30 a.m., because fog had enshrouded my apartment building. During that week, I happened to be under the influence of poems written by and for children*. I was looking for openings to view the world through child-like eyes. Right in front of me was the perfect opportunity to play the game: With my Little Eyes, I Spy.

For 45 minutes, I watched a beautiful spring day come to life! Because my snooze alarm went off every five minutes, I was able to keep track of the time. I pulled up my mini-blinds and beheld numerous seamless scene changes by Mother Nature, reminiscent of those pulled off by the production crew in the Broadway production of “The Lion King.” The first images appeared like primitive children’s drawings, the last ones like richly detailed photographs. That morning, I spied:

7:30: A WORLD OF WHITE—Whirly, swirly cotton ball clouds came down from the Heavens to dance a number called Zero Visibility. 

7:35: THINGS THAT GLISTEN—Suddenly, only two images were highlighted against a hazy background in an Abstract Artwork. Patches of light against shades of grey could be beautiful! I gazed long at a single dandelion puffball and a lone bright streak of wet pavement on the driveway across the street.

 7:40: SHAPES AND OUTLINES: The Artist penciled in the rooftops of houses in the subdivision yonder, a tree canopy against the horizon, and the stop sign on my street. A single car, lights on, slowly made its way across the grid.

7:45: SILHOUETTES—The scene was now set for the Lighting Director. Darker objects began appearing as shadows against a white canvas. For a few moments, everything was in pantomime. A black and white photograph had livened into a moving picture show. Dog walkers crisscrossed the screen. Cars, identifiable now, moved a bit faster. 

7:50: PASTELS—The Colorist, who woke late, came running on the scene, experimenting with light shades at first, using soft blues and greens for the sky and trees, and pink for the stop signs. 

7:55: PRIMARY COLORS-- Then, finding her stride, Mother Earth took out her full palette. Landscape features came alive splashed with color: barn red for the stop sign, robin’s egg blue for the sky, and forest green (accented with dewdrops) for the ash tree that had survived the Derecho and wood-boring beetles.

8:00-8:15: DETAILS, DETAILS—The picture puzzle of The Day was finally complete. The houses had windows, flags, and bushes.  Birds flew from the trees. Whole patches of dandelions appeared. Cars and trucks sped by. The morning had risen to greet me before I ventured out to conquer it. I had seen it in all its stages, awed by its simplicity and beauty. 

Would that I could stay in my state of awe! I noticed, though, that with the sun’s glare, my adult tendency to impose my judgments rose up too. My questions came unbidden: 

Why doesn’t law enforcement crack down on the speeders? 

When will building management mow the grass again? 

Will nice weather hold for the weekend? 

Will the dog walkers passing by each other ever meet? (The dogs seem to be more interested in greeting each other than their owners.) 

Are the neighbors’ flags political statements?

Finally, who can I get to wash my windows? I didn’t realize how dirty they are!! 

I can’t stop those pesky questions, I know. But when I allow the Earth to greet me each morning, I lessen my desire to impose my narrow viewpoints on it. That was the big lesson from my morning of spying on the world with my little eyes…

*I recommend “Festival in My Heart: Poems by Japanese Children” translated by Bruno Navasky (Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1993) and “Poem in your Pocket for Young Poets,” selected by Bruno Navasky (Harry N. Abrams, Inc, 2011).

FOR PERSONAL/JOURNAL REFLECTION:

1. Read the above reflection. In your journal, answer the question: Recall a time you saw the world through child-like eyes. 

FOR GROUP STUDY: 

1. Read aloud Session CXLI. 

2. Ask each person to answer the Story Circle Prompt.

May 2024

Story Circle Prompt: What was your experience of the April 8, 2024 eclipse…or a previous one?

My answer is in this essay, a version of which appeared in the Sunday, April 21 Ames Tribune: 

How, then, do I live? I live to neighbor

This was the juxtaposition of events: I had just witnessed the solar eclipse the Monday before and was approaching my morning rounds still filled with celestial wonder. On Friday, April 12, 2024, I finally had a pure day off, one free from work and other obligations.

I had recently finished the thoughtful book “How Do You Live?” by Japanese author Genzaburo Yoshino and translated by Bruno Navasky, a novel first published in 1937. As a teenage boy ponders life’s big questions, he is mentored by a young uncle, who employs history, geography, physics, and ethics to instruct him about living a great life.

First stop: Casey’s on Lincoln Way in Nevada. Talk still centered around the awesomeness of the eclipse, lending sacredness to my routine. The staff knows me as a “regular” and makes sure my wavy cheddar sour cream potato chips, zero sugar orange pop, and daily papers are stocked. We share ups and downs; life and death are constants in my work as a server in an assisted living center.

Then off to breakfast at LaFinquita (meaning “the little farm”), the Mexican restaurant on Highway 30 up the road near Colo. It had been at least five years since I frequented this space; most recently, it had been The Country House. Over a Chilango omelet (with extra pico de gallo), I pondered the next five years: Who will have won the 2024 Presidential election? What if the Party I Don’t Want to be in Power wins? Will rights be added or taken away? Will journalists be allowed to write freely? Will America be at war? (As a news junkie, I am all too aware that Ukraine and Gaza are relatively recent household words.) Will another virus go awry? Fortunately, my “what-iffing” was tempered by a good chat with my waiter Mario Flores, whose family from Honduras owns the restaurant.

Next stop: The Colo Public Library. Spending 15 minutes there, I witnessed true community as we loyal patrons engaged in book talk covering multiple genres. I shared about the book on my mind, which falls into the young adult category. “It has lots of parallels for our times,” I asserted. As I left with a big bundle of Amish novels (and an historical fiction novel recommended by library assistant Pam), librarian Joanie Jamison offered me a cookie in celebration of National Library Week. “They’re from Bricktown Bakery in Nevada,” she proclaimed. She, too, is a neighbor-er and promoter of good books, local places, and big ideas.

Back home in Nevada for lunch. My reflections were a variation on the title of my book-of-the-moment: How do I live my life? It seems I live to neighbor. As I munched on my library cookie, a miniature work of art featuring white icing and sprinkles with the word READ piped in red, I paused to be grateful for my daily rounds of precious stories. I realized the convenience store line, the restaurant booth, the library setting, and the prep station at work can be platforms for building community. The stories that wash up on the shores of the oceans of our minds each day are beautiful seashells meant to be shared. In the telling, neighborliness and goodwill can prevail.

I am eternally grateful to my co-worker Ray: On April 8, she met me at the door, thrust a pair of dark sunglasses with confetti-colored frames into my hands, and said: “I’ve been waiting for you. You have to see the eclipse.” I immediately fell under the solar eclipse’s primordial spell, knowing my Earth time would probably be used up by the time the next one rolls around in 2044. I can still feel the pull of forces and powers that measure time in eons, not just campaign seasons. There are spiritual mysteries that unite all of us, whatever lever we pull in the voting booth. I will still be transfixed for weeks and months, guided by this quote from “How Do You Live?”: “We are all human beings, so if we can’t all live a life that is truly human, something is wrong. A society that does not allow this is wrong.” 

FOR PERSONAL/JOURNAL REFLECTION:

1. Read the above reflection. In your journal, answer the question: Are you fascinated by outer space? Why or why not?

FOR GROUP STUDY:

1. Read aloud Session CXL.

2. Ask each person to answer the Story Circle Prompt.

April 2024

Story circle question: Where is your querencia?

The origin story of this question began last month at Café Diem, a true coffee house established in 2000, a mainstay in downtown Ames often frequented by Iowa State University students and faculty. A longtime friend and I were reminiscing about all the brunches and lunches we had savored in this place. Our interactions alone took quite some time to revisit: Books and poems exchanged. Smoothies and salads consumed. Community events planned. Ideas advanced to make the world a better place. If the walls could speak of all that has transpired in this place—including folk concerts and poetry slams—what would they say? we wondered. 

It was then that we noticed that patrons had tucked actual notes into the wall. What did the walls have to say? I took the closest one out. It was in French; I rolled it back up and put it back. I was a little hesitant to try again. Would it be a message of goodwill or possibly hate? But this is what the next note said:

Querencia (Spanish)

(Noun) a place from which one’s strength and character is drawn, where one feels at home, where one is their most authentic self.

I hope that you find your querencia!

Hmm! Upon reflection, my querencias are places where I can share without fear of judgment what is really going on in my life: what I am reading, thinking, dreaming, yearning for. This happens most often at retreat centers and restaurant tables where ideas are exchanged. Usually there is coffee involved! Café Diem and Perkins Family Restaurant in Ames, and Niland’s Café in Colo are a few of the places where I feel most at home, where meals with friends, functionally, become workshops! 

Since discovering this note, I’m less leery of passersby. I carry a newfound sense that strangers overwhelmingly want peace and love for all…and wish that I find safety in this world. 

And so, I pass the message of hope along and ask you: Where is your querencia?

FOR PERSONAL/JOURNAL REFLECTION:

1. Read the above reflection. Think of a place with walls that has deep meaning to you. If those walls could talk, what would they say. Answer in your journal.

FOR GROUP STUDY:

1. Reak aloud Session CXXXIX.

2. Ask each person to answer the Story Circle Prompt.

March 2024

Story Circle Prompt: Reflect on recent adventures in your life, ones great (grande) and small (petite).

The origin of this prompt was a question I posed last month to my friend Tammy, a retired French teacher from suburban Des Moines. (She takes frequent enviable trips to Europe.) What are your next adventures? I texted. She responded with her latest blog post: 

“The Stevenson Trail in southeastern France is my next dream. Robert Louis Stevenson (not yet a famous writer) walked this path in September of 1878 to distract himself after his love Fanny returned to America. He also was interested in the Camisards (aka Huguenots) a group of French Protestants in the area and their persistent and armed struggle for religious freedom in the early 1700’s. He wrote a small book called Travels with a Donkey in the Cevennes, which recounts his journey. It’s only 85 pages, but worth reading because of his struggles with his donkey Modestine and his description of the locals and the Protestants who lived there. I’m looking forward to walking where he walked and learning about Protestants in France…

“As far as my days here? Along with reading Stevenson, I peel an apple each morning and put the peels out on the back terrace. Each morning, fat brown bushy-tailed Mr. Squirrel comes and enjoys my offerings. I eat the apple with my oats, and he eats the peels while peering in at us at the dining room table. My guys tell me I need to name him, and I’m thinking on that…”

She included a line that changed my perspective: “I’ve been wrong in thinking that my life in Iowa isn’t as interesting as my life in France. Everyone’s life is interesting, if examined and reflected on well.”

Now, in thinking about my life in terms of adventures, I offer that I am nearing the end of a great three-year adventure with brilliant guides as I work to become a spiritual director. On a smaller scale I am enjoying the once-in-a-lifetime vicarious thrill of following University of Iowa Women’s Basketball superstar Caitlin Clark as she breaks records week by week. On an everyday level, as a culinary server in an assisted living center, I have just about completed my adventurous quest to collect themed headbands for every holiday in the year.  What began as a lark when I wore a turkey hat on Thanksgiving has turned into a sweet new commitment to add smiles every holiday as I serve up coffee and conversation. What are your current adventures? 

(Quotes used by permission of Tamara Andrews.)

FOR PERSONAL/JOURNAL REFLECTION:

1. Read the above reflection. In your journal, answer the question: What are examples of adventures, wild and tame, from your childhood?

FOR GROUP STUDY: 

1. Read aloud Session CXXXVIII.

2. Ask each person to answer the Story Circle Prompt.