A book about sacred solitude, attention, and the art of listening in a noisy world.

We’re told we need to open the door to find answers. What if we need to close it?

You don’t need another planner. You need a room of your own, an anchorhold.

Knee-deep in the Kansas prairie, I drove a wheezing minivan, braced for my father’s slow decline, and was drowning in the noise of my own mind. I didn’t need more productivity. I needed a different kind of attention.

In a red barn, I built a small anchorhold, inspired by medieval anchoresses like Julian of Norwich. I went there to be still and see what might remain when everything unnecessary fell away.

Behind that closed door, I discovered something essential: solitude isn’t avoidance. It is presence. 

Through tumbleweeds, fossils, snow geese, and the slow return of carrion to soil, the prairie offered lessons in surrender, trust, and the art of becoming.

Becoming Anchoress: An Invitation to Sacred Solitude offers a way to make space for yourself. To close the door. To listen more deeply than you imagined. To remember that nothing in nature is ever alone or forgotten, and neither are you.

No convent required.
Only a door.
A willingness to close it.
And the courage to return changed.