Catherine's Cafe Vocation Blog

On the return home from a very long international flight I found myself standing at O’Hare baggage claim with the rest of the passengers waiting for my bag to slip down the chute onto the carousel. I became alert once the mechanism activated and the first of the bags started their descent onto the carousel. Everyone crowding around the edge, eyes all focused on each piece of luggage. Would mine be there? Did it make the tight connection?  Hundreds of bags slowly presented themselves, slipped down the chute and onto the carousel. All bags as different as the passengers. Different sizes, shapes, softness, colors. Each containing the belongings of those tired travelers. No sign of mine.   Slowly bags are claimed and removed. Less people now and I’m trying not to worry. I’m looking for a large, soft sided, dark blue case with some red yarn tied to the handle. Lots of dark blue cases but  not mine. I found myself mesmerized by the slowly circling bags and reflecting ...

So often this time of year there is a lot of focus on gratitude. However I have been pondering differences and acceptance. Perhaps the more pointed question is How to celebrate and appreciate what is?  All does not have to be a seen solely through ‘my lens’.   I visited a couple recently who had been bickering with each other. ‘Why doesn’t he compliment me?, Why does she not do things my way?’  Such opportunities to pause and to remember the goodness we see in the other. Just as we each have acquired talents or taste, so too we can explore differences and deepen acceptance.  In our congregation we post remembrances of a sister who has gone before us. What an acceptance treat!  Let’s glory in who we each are. KC Young OP Kirkland, WA

Trying to be fully present and live in the here and now is not as simple as it sounds.     For many months I have been trying to practice mindfulness, which in my simple understanding is being fully present to each moment of the day, and also being fully aware of what I am doing at the present moment.     After months I am still trying to achieve this seemingly simple task!     My struggles in this area tells me how often it is so easy for me to live in the past or the future and not remain in the here and now. Recently I attended a three-day conference on being fully present in the here and now.  This conference focused on persons in leadership positions and how many times we have feelings, assumption, myths and how they usually become our beliefs and how I can act out of those beliefs.  Many times, those beliefs are a fallacy or fantasy, because they began with the wrong hypothesis.  This is how various forms of prejudic...

I’m someone who loves autumn, who revels in cool temperatures and “jeans and sweater weather,” who savors the deep blue of an October sky and colors of leaves in the changing light of shortening days.  I love autumn because it signals change, and I believe that we need change.   Whether we want to admit it or not, we grow because of change.   Change challenges us, whether it’s colder weather or a new idea.   As autumn changes give us diversity of colors, the gift of ephemeral beauty, so the changes we experience give us opportunities to rethink, re-evaluate,   re-wonder. Life lived in community, with women of shared values but diverse opinions, with those of shared faith but diverse insights, is life lived in the paradox of “stable changes.”     From the thermostat setting to what’s for dinner, to quirky senses of humor and musical tastes, the differences are always there, but layered through all that diversity are the deepest realities...

I walked into the locker room, my stomach in a tangle of excitement and trepidation.  It was my first swim practice as a high school freshman.  A girl sporting a swim t-shirt and a smile waved to me.  “Hi, I’m Kristin,” she said.  I laughed.  “I am, too!” Kristin and I quickly discovered that we had more in common than our names, and we became good friends.  Eventually we both entered religious life.  She entered a different Dominican congregation, and shortly afterward I came to Sinsinawa.  We gradually fell out of touch. At first glance, our lives look different.  She chose a congregation whose sisters wear full traditional habits all the time; I didn’t.  Her name has changed; mine is still Christin, with a “Sister” before it.  She taught in a Catholic school and is now studying philosophy; I live on a farm and promote care of creation.  To be honest, these differences often made me feel uncomfortable. Recently, our oth...