Cheryl Johnson

Now that I’m retired from teaching, when someone asks, what do you do?  I answer, Write, as a spiritual practice.  The reaction is usually, Oh, you’re a writer then.  Yes and no.  I don’t write for tenure now, or my name in lights.  I contemplate world and word, waiting for a spark to light and invite the experience of awakening.  For me, writing seeks to engage a deeper current in life, not just the horizontal hubbub, but a vertical exchange that informs it even when the ember seems buried deep in ashes.  I seek to honor the mystery of Creation, its brokenness and its beauty.

I’ve taken retreats at Spirit Center; volunteered at the Monastery, offering Art and Journaling; co-facilitated The Creative Word and online retreats and co-edited Come to the Table: Recipes for Loving and Serving.  I’m a novice in the Oblate program at St Gertrude’s and walker of Monastery Hill.