We had found excuses, justifying our way of living in the midst of people yet away from them. Then, we began our new project in September, and every family welcomed us with much joy and spent time in conversation with us.
This is a new reality for me, a physician assistant, as I have always prided myself on doing the very best for my patients and really going the extra mile. I have advocated for patients who have nothing. Now there are times I feel like I have very little to offer.
Horizons - Off and on, for the past few years, I have sensed a crisis looming. But I never thought it would be like this, a global coronavirus pandemic. Yet here we are. The crisis has arrived, and it is serious and costly.
The feast of the Annunciation - Recently at my friend's funeral, I started to think of all the nods we give in a day, just a simple bowing of the head. Yes.
I ask myself in times of reflection, "Is God still waiting for me to discover what has been planned out for me? Are the signs there but I continue to miss them?"
Contemplate This - It is hard to gain a perspective when you are in the middle of uncertainty like the coronavirus pandemic, to make sense of what is going on and how the future will emerge.
Horizons - No one belongs on a pedestal. It is both lonely and dangerous. We are meant to live on the earth, grounded in reality and feet firmly planted. This could easily turn cynical, I realize. To fail to admire good qualities in another is no virtue.
Teaching our hearts to love is an adult task. It means I am responsible for what I pay attention to, what I teach my heart so that my choices are informed and loving. I recently spent a week on the Texas/Mexico border where my heart had a chance to test what it loves.
My prayer was for health and life — the best for me and my friends and the woman we all called Mother. How was I to accept reality, when I presumed the all-loving God had let me down woefully?
Horizons - As I moved closer to making my final vows, choosing a motto was a way to have something that would encompass, in a few words, why I was ready to say yes to forever. I chose "Love never fails" from 1 Corinthians 13:8.
Milwaukee has been shaken to its core. I'm sure I am not the only one who didn't sleep, and I have no personal connection to Molson Coors. Every siren startled me and helicopters hovered long into the night.
From Where I Stand - The 40,000 women at the U.N. Conference on Women 25 years ago in Beijing stood up and said no to invisibility. No to powerlessness. And then they said yes — and listed all the things that needed to be done.
In Manila, the Philippines: I meet the homeless along the street, begging at doors, camping under the bridge, stopping vehicles on the road asking for coins, lying on the sidewalks — so frail and exposed to rain and sun.
Horizons - Our resilience varies in how we are able to bounce back from difficult experiences and bask in the renewing light of joyful moments. The invitation of Gaudium et Spes is to strengthen each other.
None of us graduate from needing community, accountability and guidance. None of us belong on pedestals, but with our feet firmly on the ground as the people of God walking together.
What a moment of grace for South Africa and all the participants who — despite the violence that took place at the beginning of September 2019 — beat the odds and came on the pilgrimage!
Transgender people are who they say they are. I have witnessed their incredible courage and faith in the pursuit of living an authentic life. It is what we call transformation in God, conversion of life.
The Amazonian synod is a process that I suspect is just beginning. There are still many roads to open, many challenges to face and many networks to build so that the ecology is understood, prayed for and considered integral.