This is how we become better and stronger. Our children and grandchildren will ask questions. They will want to hear our stories and understand what it was like and what happened. We need to remember and to honor the truth of our experiences for them.

I have been deeply moved by these stories, by them and the meaning each has found in their problems, by the unrecognized strengths, resilience, the depths of love and devotion, the rich and human tapestry of this journey. It is in listening to another’s lived experience I have had the opportunity to grow in connectedness in a time of distancing.

As my short-term memory improved, so did my long-term memory. A song, a smell, a sight would bring back an old memory. Sometimes I have an extremely clear memory from the past and I don't even know what triggered it. Almost like something brought me back to that moment, but I can't pinpoint what. The brain is mysterious and amazing. And God is also mysterious and amazing. (I love when science and religion share similarities!)

Over time, I remembered that irrevocable identity assigned to me at birth – not Roman Catholic, but something perhaps a little more basic – that of being a human being in a sea of human beings trying to figure out how to be and how to act.

The first person I saw greeting people in the doorway was a lovely woman I had met a few weeks earlier at the Krempels Center, only this time she was clothed in beautiful Christmas robes. "A Woman Priest!" I said to myself, "I must have found my spiritual home!"

We need you now more than ever. Join our ‘week of giving’ campaign to ensure St. John’s thrives in 2021. Helen shares her message: We are all in this together. She should know. She’s been part of St. John’s for over 50 years.

We need you now more than ever. Join our ‘week of giving’ campaign to ensure St. John’s thrives in 2021. Jeff and Denise feel the love, and share the resources.

We need you now more than ever. Join our ‘week of giving’ campaign to ensure St. John’s thrives in 2021. Bertha Rocray leans on her deep faith and the St. John’s community to navigate the challenging moments in her life.

We need you now more than ever. Join our ‘week of giving’ campaign to ensure St. John’s thrives in 2021. Hear from three young families who are committed to each other and St. John’s.

We need you now more than ever. Join our ‘week of giving’ campaign to ensure St. John’s thrives in 2021. Today we visit with Reggie Baird who takes us on a quick tour highlighting a couple of the improvements we have made in our historic building this year.

We need you now more than ever. Join our ‘week of giving’ campaign to ensure St. John’s thrives in 2021. Today we visit with Anna Kay Vorsteg who sends a message of love and gratitude to you.

We need you now more than ever. Join our campaign to ensure St. John’s thrives in 2021.

Little things often offer moments of pause. And there can be a spaciousness, a flexibility, in little things. Where things, and people, can be just as they are. Little things support the big work of now.

The strange and surreal events of the last six months have impacted all of us leaving many of us with feelings of uncertainty, anxiety and fatigue and genuinely needing support, but also needing to give support to feel good. I often invoke Rob’s message about his mom who told him when he was feeling grumpy to go out and do something nice for someone else. It works. Especially in these crazy times we need to feel connected, to support and be supported.

Occasionally, God seems to send us “Angels” of support. As a young man and Army officer candidate, I once crumbled under harassment and dissolved into tears. One of the training officers, a burly New Hampshire State Trooper in civilian life, ordered me to come with him.

Sometimes it is the meer fact of knowing that support is available if needed. The current pandemic is a prime example. Several people have contacted us to see if we needed anything done such as shopping. Phil and I went into isolation early on. Thus far we have been fine (other than nearly running out of reading books). We have not needed to be in quarantine. The thought that there is support if needed is reassuring.

Retirement was chosen for me just over a year ago. I feared I would lose my purpose. However, I have come to realize, there is no retirement from parenting. I find purpose in supporting my young adult daughters, not in the financial sense, but as an advocate. Don't lose courage. This too will pass. This time of social, political, economic and medical turmoil is so much more difficult for our young people who are trying to find their place in the world, than for us retired oldsters. I try to be a peaceful home to which they can always return...a foundation.

The joy of growth is that there’s always something new to discover, an “aha moment”, maybe not earth shattering but a moment of a new way of seeing things. I’ve experienced this in my relationships.