Becoming Anchoress: The Gift of Sacred Solitude

We're told we need to open the door to find answers. What if we need to close one?Maybe you don't need to do more. You need a room of your own-an anchorhold.During my father's final years, I drove a wheezing minivan across the Kansas prairie while trying to outrun the noise in my own mind and the sorrow of all that was changing. 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 entered it to be still and discover what remained when everything unnecessary fell away.Behind that closed door, I found that solitude is not avoidance. It is presence.Through tumbleweeds, fossils, snow geese, and the slow return of carrion to soil, the prairie became a teacher, offering lessons in surrender, trust, and the quiet art of becoming.This book is an invitation to sacred solitude-not as an escape from the world, but as a way of returning to it with deeper attention.You only need a door.The willingness to close it.And the courage to return changed.