Notes from Life
The other day, the woman who administers our website, gave me an email she had received from a woman who spoke of all the Sisters of Divine Providence she had known as a child and young woman. It just so happened that she was a boarder at a boarding school where I taught when I was very young. It was my first assignment. I had charge of the girl boarders as well as teaching high school math and science.

Anyway, I was surprised at all the memories it brought back. I remembered the woman quite well and lots of other things about that time in my life. I won't say that the first years of teaching or living in community are easy, but when I remembered the time it was all sorts of good things that came to me. And not just that year, but all the years. Sometimes I just go about my day and try to keep up with life, community, prayer, other relationships. But yesterday I took a little time to remember and it was gratitude that filled me.

Gratitude for the people I have met, the people who have become important in my life, the ones who have supported me (and there are many), and the ones who were comforted by my presence. My life is full of blessings. I think of how shy I was as a child and how narrow in my thinking. This religious life has been one of openning up and seeing the world anew. I am so grateful for my call and my life and how I have become who I am.

So what about discernment? It requires taking some time to look beyond the present moment with its struggles and responsibilities in order to have a long view. Where have you been and what has been the deepest longing in your heart? What is God's dream for you?