by Beth Casteel | Jun 3, 2025 | Publications
Writing invokes my shamefaced guilt: “I should be doing anything else but this solitary selfish activity.” And yet, the first thing I want to do when I awake is write. In his book Think Like a Monk: Train Your Mind for Peace and Purpose, author Jay Shetty...
by Beth Casteel | Mar 31, 2025 | Reflections
The Hunger of a Homeless Soul He sat on a piece of cardboard and meager belongings. I almost stepped on him as I hurried down the street looking for a meatless lunch. It was Ash Wednesday; the evening prior had been our date night in the city. While my husband took a...
by Beth Casteel | Feb 7, 2025 | Reflections
The old man stood in the snow banging on our back kitchen door. He had a shovel in his hand. “You have to let me in! I am stuck and I need to call my brother to get me out!” I stood on the other side of the glass door, my two-year-old granddaughter perched on my left...
by Beth Casteel | Dec 11, 2024 | Reflections
I unlock the door to a hot, quiet church. The lights are off. I am alone in the cavernous 127-year-old church. I lock myself back in and turn on some lights. I breathe in the quiet of the empty Catholic church that I have attended since I was a child. The images on...
by Beth Casteel | Dec 10, 2024 | Reflections
A month before Christmas 2022, I arrived at my parents’ house to make the nut rolls – small, cookie-sized logs of rich pastry that melt in your mouth, the dough shoved full of a sugary maple-flavored walnut filling and sprinkled with powdered sugar. My mom has...
