Completing The Quest

Taking the Ring to Mordor It is a quest of epic proportions, taking the Ring of Power to Mordor to cast it into the fires of Mt. Doom. Just the kind of quest I need. For my second trip to New Zealand, on a quest to come “full circle”on the healing journey I’d begun there […]

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 […]