“Spirituality means that the way you live, move, and have your being comes forth out of the depth of Spirit, out of the resonant depths of life, instead of anything compartmentalized — or mechanistic or cerebral. It’s not determined from the outside. It’s an inner fire and passion.” — Sister Helen Prejean, IN SWEET COMPANY: CONVERSATIONS WITH EXTRAORDINARY WOMEN ABOUT LIVING A SPIRITUAL LIFE
When I was a very little girl, ill with some long forgotten childhood malady, I lay on my parents’ bed trembling with fever, dreaming I was a Model T Ford clamoring out of control on a deserted country road. I was certain I would never be able to still myself and rest.
My father sat on the edge of the bed. I cried and told him my dream. All the routine sick-child rituals failed to calm me. Unsure of what to do next, he gathered me in his arms and began to croon “Toora Loora Loora,” an old Irish lullaby. I quickly, gratefully, fell asleep.
In the years that followed …