Maintaining my peace and connection

Jen Spicer writes that maintaining personal peace is essential for building connections with family and leaving a legacy of faith. Reflecting on advice from Abbot John Braganza, OSB, Spicer notes that her experience raising children with highly sensitive nervous systems and navigating a neurodivergent marriage has highlighted the importance of emotional stability.

Spicer explains that her efforts to heal from trauma and repair her nervous system allow her to better serve her family. She suggests that a parent's ability to represent God to their children depends more on maintaining peace and relational connection than on providing perfect religious instruction or precise catechesis. This approach is based on the idea that all learning is an emotional experience.