And now I'm here! At Visitation Monastery in North Minneapolis

I left Washington on June 29th, to begin a great adventure. For several months I've been making preparations to leave the home that has been mine for 38 years this August. I have had a wonderful life in Forks, and not one day has ever passed that I didn't thank God for the life that was mine there: the beautiful forest and rivers, lakes and ocean, my 27 years of being on the faculty of Forks High School, my beloved St. Anne's and all my friends there.

I never thought to leave there. I thought it was God's plan for my life to live out the second half of my life there (the first half having been lived in California in the Sacramento Valley), and to die there. I used to joke about Don and I having take some sort of accidental "vow of stability" once we were in Forks. We did feel that was where we were called to be. And I think it was true. We "belonged" to St. Anne's. We "belonged" to Forks. We helped to raise two generations of young people there - and we watched those teenagers turn into adults and then into parents and grandparents! They became our friends.

And then I found myself moving into new and unknown territory.

My first stop on my journey this summer was to the campus of the MotherHouse of the Sisters, Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary in Monroe, MI. I attended the Nuns Life Community Summit there at the beginning of July - a wonderful weekend with amazing women. I'll tell more about that later.

And then, on the 5th of July, I came here to Visitation Monastery where I will stay for the next six months - my long retreat - my "monastic immersion experience."  Another homecoming, another set of loving greetings. I have spent the last three days getting unpacked, settled in, and re-integrated into the life of these monastic sisters who live among and share the lives of the poor in this neighborhood.

I'll continue this as I can - without losing my place in the rhythms of monastic life as it is lived here. Stay tuned.