My name is Susan Bailey and I find the life of Louisa May Alcott endlessly fascinating. I come from New England (specifically Massachusetts) and my family has been here in one form or another since the 1630′s. I live fairly close to Concord, MA where Orchard House, the homestead of the Alcotts, is located, and visit often. Every few years or so I go on a reading ‘binge’ about Louisa and this time around was so good, I just had to start a blog about my passion. The binge, by the way, still goes on!
I’ve been happily married for over 30 years and my husband is a deacon in the Melkite Church (Eastern Catholic – I am Roman Catholic). We are proud parents of a grown son and daughter.
I’ve worked happily for the last 17 years at Rutledge Properties in Wellesley, MA, supporting the agents in the office.
And in my ‘other life,’ I’ve performed, written and recorded music exploring my Catholic faith. I have a website (www.susanbailey.net) where you can hear samples and find out more about this. I sing at various masses at my home parish of St. Luke the Evangelist in Westboro, MA.
Other interests include history (especially photographic), nature (especially bird watching), and I have the same ‘inordinate love of cats’ that Louisa had. :-)
We are fortunate in Massachusetts to have several chapters of WINGS, an organization dedicated to gathering together women of faith in an effort to support and deepen that faith.
I am pleased to announce that my very first book, River of Grace: Creative Passages Through Difficult Times will be released this Fall, published by Ave Maria Press!
A memoir with life application
River of Grace is part spiritual memoir and part life application, offering true and hopeful stories of growth and transformation after hard losses.
Father Robert Reed, president of CatholicTV and author of Renewed writes of the book:
“If you, like me, have experienced failure or loss and can’t quite find your way out of the darkness, Susan Bailey offers gentle reflections with graceful tools that bring light, creative renewal and a fuller Christian life.”
Amy Belding Brown, author of Mr. Emerson’s Wife and Flight of the Sparrow (which I reviewed last year) writes:
“Susan Bailey’s powerful and beautifully-written book is much more than an insightful spiritual memoir. River of Grace is also a brilliant reflection on the connections between creativity and grace. Deeply grounded in a profound Christian faith, the author chronicles her personal experiences of loss and shows how they were transformed as she learned to accept and respond to new challenges. This wonderful book also includes a valuable assortment of exercises that will enrich your spiritual life and gently guide you to confront your own difficulties and deepen your relationship with God. Anyone who seeks to discern God’s purposes in life’s most challenging situations will find this book one to cherish.”
Seasons of loss
Just about all of us can cite a time in our lives whether now or in the past, where we have lost something precious to us.
Perhaps it’s been the death of a parent or a child.
Or, you yourself are suffering through a long illness.
It could be a long stretch of unemployment causing financial difficulties, even the loss of your home.
Maybe you’ve lost a best friend due to a falling out.
Perhaps you’ve recently put down a beloved pet.
These are all serious losses that tear at us, causing grief or anxiety or anger. Where do we find the strength to pick up the pieces and carry on?
Could a serious loss signal a new life, even a transformed life?
This is what I write about in River of Grace, beginning with the loss of my parents and then my singing voice. Through the means of a kayak and my love for Louisa May Alcott, God led me on an amazing, joy-filled and sometimes crazy adventure within his river of grace, leading up to this book and beyond.
Stories and tools
River of Grace is not just book of stories. I provide practical tools so that you too can go on your amazing adventure. These “Flow Lessons” appear throughout the book and will also be available on this website.
In the weeks to come, I will share quotes and stories from River of Grace. Please spread the word to everyone you know who has gone through a season of loss or is just looking to jump start their spiritual and creative lives.
Available in many formats
River of Grace will be available as a print book, e-book and audio book (through Audible.com and iTunes). Just this past week I started the process of recording the book. My thanks to producer extraordinaire Ron Zabrocki for his expertise (he produced several of my music CDs).
Here is more on River of Grace:
Writing River of Grace and having it published by such a well-respected publisher has been a dream come true. I would definitely classify it as a “crazy adventure!”
Please share this post on Facebook, on Twitter, on Pinterest, through email with anyone whom you think would benefit from reading my book. Feel free to share the book cover. Your recommendation is the best way to get the word out.
Life is full of transitions. The longer we live, the greater the number of our years, the greater the number of transitions.
Some transitions are rather universal like adolescence and leaving home, marriage and childbirth, illness and aging, or separation through death. Other transitions feel as if they are thrust upon us like the loss of a job or an unwelcome medical diagnosis.
In every case we’re forced to look at life anew in order the rebuild our lives.
In this week’s gospel Jesus’ disciples are struggling to deal with his departure from this world. They will be forced to let go of their former ways of relating to him. In the future, Christ will be present to them, albeit in a new and different way.
Sorting all this out is something the disciples will have to do together. So Jesus prays that “they may be one.”
It has been said that most people belong to two families:
One family is your biological family. These are the folks with whom you share a common bloodline, genetics, DNA.
The other family is your psychological or spiritual family. These are the people that care for you, love you, stand by you. These are the communities that give you strength and hope when you need it most.
Biological families and spiritual families are sometimes the same. But frequently, they are not.
The disciples needed a community of faith to get through the transition.
We, modern-day disciples need spiritual families to navigate and find strength through the changes and upheavals of life. The big transitions of life are not meant to be travelled alone…
Who are the people that make up your “spiritual family?” Who are you a “spiritual family” to?
How are you traveling life as the years (and the transitions) add up? Traveling alone? Or, with companions?
We pray for the grace to have and to be, faith-filled, hope-filled and loving travel companions.
Our son called the other day to share a lovely story about a former student.
Until recently Stephen had been a pre-school teacher in Brooklyn, NY. Although he had neither experience nor background in education, he took the job because he was desperate, having been unemployed for months.
Even as he fumbled in the dark with no idea as to what he was doing, Stephen managed to touch the life of a then 3-year-old boy.
Surprising encounter
Stephen knew well the thankless nature of teaching. So imagine his surprise when the now five-year-old boy recognized him on the street and ran up to him, throwing his arms around him. The family followed up with a phone call and Stephen is planning an outing with them as a result.
Give what little we have
We never know how we will affect other people’s lives. We think we have to be experts; my son’s experience says otherwise. We don’t need to know anything—we just need to be open and vulnerable, willing to give whatever we have.
We have witnessed the horror in the streets of Baltimore and around the country. A large group of disenfranchised people are protesting the purgatory of their daily lives, ones of poverty and hopelessness.
While the means of “protest” through robbery, arson, assault and defiance are wrong and cannot be tolerated, we as a nation are stilled forced to consider the deeper questions: what went wrong and how to fix it.
The problem is overwhelming in its scope and it’s tempting to just tune out. After all, what can one person do?
The problems that Jesus faced during his time on earth appeared overwhelming as well.
Streams of sick people dogged his every step, begging for healing. Being God of course, he could have just gathered all the sick together and granted a mass healing with the wave of his hand.
But he chose a different way, the way that we are asked to follow: deal with the problem one person, one step, at a time.
One person, one healing
Jesus sought intimacy with the sick.
Consider the paralyzed man, lowered through a roof on a mat, called “son” and forgiven of his sins before being told to pick up his mat and go home.
Or the blind man, healed from a mixture of mud and Jesus’ own spittle.
And the hemorrhaging woman who touched the Lord’s cloak in secret, called forth from her shame and brought back out into the open.
While Jesus often taught thousands, he also counseled Nicodemus in the middle of night.
He formed his small band of disciples, pouring out his heart to them and washing their feet.
These men, imbued with the Holy Spirit, would go out and change the world following their Master’s example.
Daring to step out
Recall Philip, teaching and then baptizing the Ethiopian eunuch in Acts 8.
Or Ananias, daring to obey the Lord and lay hands on Saul (aka St. Paul) despite this man’s relentless persecution of the early Christians.
We only need to give what we have
Even in the midst of the staggering problems of poverty and race in our country, the Gospel reminds us that it is possible to become part of the solution.
We don’t have to be experts in education, community organizing or social work. We don’t need power or money. We need no other means but the simple offering of self, in partnership with our Lord.
Power in weakness
Stephen reminds me that in our weakness, we can make a difference. In the midst of chaos we can touch that one person, changing their lives forever.
We need to be open to our Lord’s prompting, committing ourselves to doing the best we can with what little we have.
“This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” John 15:12-13
In this new commandment Jesus took, “Love your neighbor as yourself” several steps further. Now love involves sacrifice. His greatest demonstration of this commandment was his death on the cross. But because he was willing to sacrifice his life, he rose again to new life in a body glorified.
This is the love he requires from us. It’s a radical love, a sacrificial love.
What does it mean to lay down one’s life? Are we literally to die a martyr’s death? What other ways are there to lay down one’s life?
Recently I had a chance to hear fellow Catholicmom columnist Allison Gingras describe a way. Speaking at the Springfield Women’s Conference in late April, she told the story of how she and her husband Kevin were led to adopt a three-year-old deaf child from China. This adoption involved preparing their two sons (one of whom was reluctant) for a new brother or sister. It entailed a three-year wait followed by a grueling sojourn to China by parents who were homebodies. Their lives would be transformed by the arrival of this child in ways they could never imagine. In essence, the entire family lay down their lives in order to welcome its new member.
What does it take to make such a life-changing decision? How does one prepare to lay down one’s life in this manner? I recently corresponded with Allison and asked her to describe the experience of adopting their daughter, Faith.
from right to left: Allison and Kevin Gingras and their daughter, Faith
“This is my commandment: Love one another as I love you.” (John 15:9-17)
I once knew a marriage therapist who used to say to couples:
“Love is less about what happens when everything in your marriage is going ‘OK.’ Not much effort is required when things are ‘OK.’ Not much work or sacrifice is needed when the day or week has been ‘OK.’
No, love is about how you treat each other when things are definitely not ‘OK,’ when your world is falling apart.
The acid test of love is when you’re in terrible pain and how you treat each other in the midst of the pain.
Last year, I had the opportunity to visit a winery in California. Walking through the vineyard, I bit into a grape. The grape was amazingly sweet. I asked the tour guide how these vines bore such sweet grapes. She explained to me that the vineyard workers pruned the vines, binding drooping tendrils and trimming off branches to re-focus their growth. Along with sun, water, and good soil, pruning is essential to getting sweet grapes.
Pruning is not a hostile act to the branch. Rather, it is an act of hope. The vinedresser expects that the vine will produce delicious grapes. But in order to do so the vine must be pruned so it can re-direct its energy.
Sometimes we need to do some personal “pruning” ourselves: Every activity we engage in involves time and energy. Are we spending our time and energy on things that are helping us to become better people? Or, do we need to say “no” to some things that are not really bringing forth our better selves? Are we being drained of energy that we know could be better used somewhere else in our lives? When you’re 80 will you be able to look back and say, “Yeah, that was time well-spent. I’m so happy that I spent so much of my 40s doing that!”
Sure, there are life commitments that we must undertake. Some are difficult and draining, but we must live them nonetheless.
But honestly, sometimes (maybe too often!) I find myself saying “yes” to unnecessary things and situations that drain my energy. I unwittingly convince myself that “this is the way it has to be.”
This is where I need to “prune” both my thinking and my schedule. So, I pray for the courage to say “no.” But also, I pray for the wisdom to know where I need to refocus my energy and invest my time. I trust that the Divine Vine-Grower will empower me to do that, if I am open to it.
Let’s pray that our lives may flow out toward others as sweet, vivifying wine. Those pruning shears may be our key to more abundant growth.
My husband thinks I am nuts when I dialog with my cats. It takes all forms: silly high voices, singing, kisses … it’s true, it’s crazy but it’s lots of fun and definitely a two-way conversation as this article points out.
With vivid memories of four feet of snow and bitter cold,
the coming of Spring in New England is especially sweet this year.
Temperatures have been on the cool side but that only makes the show of blooming flowers and leaves opening last that much longer.
Early Spring is a fleeting time; the landscape literally changes overnight.
I wanted to capture this rebirth and relish it.
For example, between yesterday (when this photo was taken, 4-28-15)
and today, this forsythia bush sprouted green leaves overnight!
And here’s something else (really obvious)
that I missed from not taking the time to observe:
Because the flowers are green,
I never made the connection that they were in fact, flowers!
I thought instead they were an early configuration of the final leaf
when in fact the leaf is the fruit of the flower.
Looks like my favorite saying of “I’m slow but I get it eventually” works here!
At any rate, I hope you are enjoying Spring wherever it is blooming.
Take a moment to examine these miracles closely and stroke the leaves,
still moist and new.
Before you know it, they will be gone, replaced with the lush foliage of summer.
Maybe take a moment and say “thank you” for this rebirth
that comes every year despite the harshness of the winter.
On the kayaking front …
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I am pleased to present this guest post from Father Steven LaBaire, pastor of Holy Family Parish in Worcester, MA.
Our son called the other day to share a lovely story about a former student.
Be as One 