Stretching the Search

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I have a beloved twin sister who hates to shop but also knows she needs some new clothes.  She always wants me to go with her and when I ask her what we’re looking for, she answers, “I’ll know what I want when I find it.”

How many of us have that experience – maybe not at a shopping mall or online retailer – but in searching for wisdom, insight, a new way to pray, a new challenge in study?  I’m always grateful when someone recommends a new book or article because “It is really mind stretching.”  Like my love/hate relationship with exercise, I could easily stick to my favorite mystery writers and read nothing else or listen only to my favorite podcast, but it’s when I choose to or am encouraged or challenged to search, stretch, push my comfortable boundaries, that I discover that I have found what I truly wanted. It is a choice we must make, in large and small ways, to search for what we truly want, even when we’re not sure what that is!  How do you not settle for only what is known and comfortable? 

Priscilla Wood OP
Dubuque, IA

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