Catherine's Cafe Vocation Blog

What a time we are in and how creative we are called to be. How prayerful we need to be of those globally who have contracted COVID-19.  But I have an issue... with the phrase "social distancing." As this time of sheltering in place and paying attention to potential symptoms, I realized what I am asked to do is be  physically distant .  With limited physical shared space besides the Sisters with whom I live, it is interesting to see how staff at the grocery stores & pharmacies do their jobs with and for us and also keep distance. We need not be unsocial in our interactions but cautious with our physical presence. We all need social, spiritual, emotional and soul-filled connections. Where I live, we may take walks and be mindful of physical space, but a greeting and wave is a way to socially acknowledge the other we see. Some of my walks are silent meditations, some I listen to a podcast or a radio station.  The best are those when I call a frien...

Recently I have taken up weaving as a kind of hobby. I’ve never been one to be creative with my hands and I figure I’d better learn to do something like that before I get old. That’s a joke, actually, because the fact is that I AM old at age 74, almost. So here I am moving the weft through the warp and seeing emerge a really lovely piece of fabric. What’s best about weaving is that it is done slowly, rhythmically, back and forth, back and forth. It’s like breathing – quiet and beautiful and life-giving. It occurs to me that my weaving experience is like my life as I enter into the last chapter, the one we call “old age.” Each day, each moment comes after the other, creating an image of color and texture that reflects the process in my mind, my emotions, my body.  Each thread is new word or feeling or idea or question about life. It’s a kind of inner journey reflected outside of me.  What are you weaving these days? How do you name the threads?  Mary E...