Amy Morris-Young — who learned from both the Jesuits and her Nonna to view the world not only with her eyes, but with her heart and soul — shares that perspective in her monthly column.
Notes from Nonna: When a friend told me about her son, I felt at once both isolated from those around me, and in the encompassing presence of God. And from that quiet stillness, I felt and heard this: "Just relax and let me love you."
Notes from Nonna: Can we talk about how wonderful grandchildren are? I mean, really, who knew about the joy that was coming if we could only survive our kids' teenage years and early 20s?
Some of my dearest family and friends embrace political positions that that fiercely contradict mine, but I still strive to love them. Being yanked between the ferocious ends of our current moral and political tug-of-war seems makes that difficult in the extreme.
When I'm in the middle of what feel like back-to-back catastrophes, I have learned that if I give in to even a bit of self-pity, I can rely on being thumped soundly on the head by God and the universe. And rightly so.