As is often the case with fiction, my story is not Fiona’s story; and yet it is. I wanted to be a cloistered nun when I was fifteen. I formally applied after high school and received a letter from the Mother General saying that I needed to experience the world for at least a year, go […]
This article is about the awakening of the writing impulse, focusing on my unusual relationship with the mother superior of the convent boarding school I attended in the early 1960’s. My experiences there laid the groundwork for my much later exploration of Thomas Merton and the time I spent in a Trappistine monastery, the two […]
As is often the case with fiction, my story is not Fiona’s story; and yet it is.
I wanted to be a cloistered nun when I was fifteen. I formally applied after high school and received a letter from the Mother General saying that I needed to experience the world for at least a year, go to college, get a job, and make my request again.
Not surprisingly, I never did. (It was the sixties.)
Thirty years later, inspired by Thomas Merton’s writings, the old longing awakened. I left the hi-tech world of Silicon Valley where I was enjoying “success” and a promise of more, and entered a Cistercian monastery at age 46. MORE