A Perfect End

Of all the things I got to experience as part of my monastery stay, by far my favourite was “Compline.” Compline is the short, sweet, last service of the day. As the sun goes down the monks sing their final hymns and say their final prayers of the day. It is “the hour of peaceful […]

Monastery Mode

I wait for God But He’s not in a hurry So maybe, I shouldn’t be either.

A Piece of Eternity

Last Thursday I put my phone on airplane mode and set my life on monastery mode. I spent four nights – three full days – at a Benedictine monastery situated on a dairy farm in the hills above Hawke’s Bay, New Zealand. I settled quite easily into monastery life, attending the many services each day […]

Off The Grid

Sometimes you need to go off grid to get back on track. For a while now, I have been feeling a strong need for a retreat, to practice stillness, to wait, to be rather than do. In her book, “When the Heart Waits,” Sue Monk Kidd writes, “Aligning ourselves – heart, body, mind, and spirit – into […]

Starting at the Beginning

Sometimes to move forward, you have to go back to where you started. Just shy of three years ago, I landed on the shores of New Zealand for the first time in my life, brokenhearted and barely surviving, but excited for the hope of healing brought by a new adventure. Sometimes you have to go […]

Operation Full Circle

Three years ago, I got my heart broken… shattered into dust. A few months later, I embarked on the trip of a lifetime to “Middle Earth” and the “Land Down Under.” This trip, an exercise in self-guided adventure therapy, marked the beginning of an epic journey of healing, rebuilding, and renewal. Three years later, I […]

Star Stuff

Today is Carl Sagan Day! I love Carl Sagan because, in a world where the majority of people seem to believe science has replaced magic, he put the magic back in to science. Here are a few of my favourite Carl Sagan quotes: “The nitrogen in our DNA, the calcium in our teeth, the iron […]

The One Thing

You know that feeling when you get to the end of the day, and even though you’ve been busy all day, you feel like you’ve accomplished NOTHING? Nothing truly important, anyway. Recently I have been getting this message repeatedly, from multiple sources, about focusing on “The One Thing.” What is the one thing that is […]

Sabbatical

Have you ever felt that you are surviving on fumes, and then you’re surviving on fumes of fumes, and then you’re surviving on the mere memory of fumes? That you’re burnt out, or so far beyond burnout, that there’s nothing left to burn? After finishing an incredible summer leading 26-day adventure road trips around the […]

Coming Home

We shall not cease from exploration and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time. -T.S. Eliot Oh hello there, I’ve been off exploring and it’s been some time since we last spoke. Since I last spoke, here, in this place, my […]