I recognized myself in her story

“I’ll dive right into the book,” I promised Mary Johnson when, unexpectedly, she handed me a copy of An Unquenchable Thirst. Hearing Mary read from the manuscript two years earlier at an A Room of Her Own Foundation retreat had aroused so much curiosity about her life as a nun with Mother Theresa that An Unquenchable Thirst suddenly became the focus of my upcoming short vacation in a place I can never get enough of: Santa Fe. For four days, I couldn’t wait to get back to my bland Motel 6 room in order to pick up where I had left off that morning.

Of course the book did reveal much about Mary’s experience. What surprised me was the extent to which I recognized myself in her story. Although I have operated in the lay world and Mary within a religious order; we both have experienced inadequate self-esteem, displacement, isolation, loneliness, subjugation to the rules of a different community. We both also have taken responsibility for our lives, questioned our values, examined past actions, made difficult decisions, wanted to understand ourselves in the most profound way, recognized the need to love and be loved, and dared to be different. (See Mary’s meditation, Dare to be different” on page 412—one of my favorite moments in her book).

Mary’s book is immensely valuable, I believe, because it reveals the distinctive nature of life in a religious order at the same time that it reminds us of the ties that bind us all. Reading the book broadened my experience and heightened my sense of belonging to a humanity that is both flawed and beautiful.

As a reader, I was moved by Mary’s courage, resilience, and persistence in her quest for compassion and truth.

 
Thordis Niela Simonsen has authored three books, You May Plow Here: The Narrative of Sara Brooks, Dancing Girl: Themes and Improvisations in a Greek Village Setting, and Dances in Two Worlds: A Writer-Artist's Backstory. (Norton published the first book; The Fundamental Note, Thordis' own imprint, published the other two.) Complementing her life in the States, where she is a visual artist and speaker, Thordis spends time in a Greek village where she restored a deteriorating house by hand and where she hosts Astra Writing in Greece for serious women writers who like to travel—and hike. astragreece inc.— genuine encounters in travel and the arts—is the vessel for Thordis' collected experience.