Marla Inks: Spiritual Direction

07/22/2025

If you can't go to Prairiewoods Franciscan Spirituality Center in person, turn on your sound and imagine being there. 🩷

07/22/2025

Today’s Practice: Flip the Lens
Catch one moment of annoyance or stress.
Pause, breathe, and ask: “How else could I see this?”
Even a tiny shift in perspective opens the door to peace.

07/13/2025

Have you ever gone on a personal retreat? Contact me if you want to know more about it. Prairiewoods is a beautiful place right here in Iowa!

07/13/2025

From ine of my favorite authors.

I’ve loved this poem for a long time. These days it speaks to me in an especially poignant way, as the heartbreak deepens across our country and around our world.

Many of us love life, of course, but some people seem to love their own lives and care little for the lives of others. They seem to want a world in which they and people with whom they feel at home have a chance to thrive, while others—especially the marginalized—must fight every day simply to survive.

These people cheer for a government that forces more and more people to the margins, apparently thinking that this kind of ruthlessness makes life safer for them and theirs. They somehow fail to see that such a government is not in love with life—it’s in love with death. When power gets used that way, everyone eventually pays a price.

Memo to Self: Go beyond your broken heart: learn from it and follow. Get in touch with your fierce love of life, everyone’s life, and if you find it smoldering, blow on the embers and rekindle it. Push back on the fearful who want to tamp life down, and work hard to deny power to those who are in love with death. That's a purpose worth living for.

06/02/2025

06/02/2025

Bishop Steven Charleston ~ "Let my life be lived in gratitude, for every precious sunrise to every magical sunset, let me be thankful for what I have been privileged to experience. The cool air of heaven has touched my skin, the scent of its gardens has embraced me. My life is a hymn of thanks."