Catherine's Cafe Vocation Blog

I’m sure you, like me, can tell by the change in the air, the amount of sunlight, that summer is leaving us again.  This ease into autumn is a gift that triggers reflection on change, on time, on journeys ended and begun.     I’m reading a memoir by Kathryn Schulz entitled   Lost & Found .     She divides her small book into three sections:   “Lost” – “Found” – “And.”     I relish those divisions, especially the last one.     How much of our lives is filled with “and” – we think we are headed one way and then we realize we need to rethink; we are absolutely sure we are right about an issue or a plan and then something reaches our mindset and we realize we need to rethink.     I hear echoes of the Gospels in these three words…how many encounters of Jesus embrace “lost, found, and” – choices laid out before cured lepers and rich young people and sophisticated Pharisees and those possessed by the evils of their day. ...

During these days of the pandemic I have had a lot of time alone. I live with a younger sister who is currently working on a master's degree in counseling. She has many responsibilities and commitments, so she and I are on two different schedules. We eat and pray together and are grateful for each other's presence in our lives, but other than that we don't connect often during the day. With all this quiet time I was surprised one day when I realized a great desire to get away to a quiet place where I could spend time with God and with nature. Didn't I already have this? Something inside me urged me to think about this seriously and to seek a different environment. I ended up going to a retreat center near me for three days. I brought just one book that would help me to go deeper into my relationship with God. Each day I walked around the grounds, marveled at the various hues of autumn, watched a flock of geese overhead, and thoroughly delighted in God's creation...