This inspirational memoir traces Lori Norman's personal journey from her entry into the novitiate at the age of eighteen to the eventual reexamination of all she knew and trusted.
Is this God's will?
She'd always believed it was her calling to become a nun and to teach; but bound by rules, expectations of church and family, and her vows, she felt trapped and unable to escape. Sexual repression and the church's rigid views on the value of women confined her as though in a medieval castle. Across its drawbridge lay unknown, forbidden territory.
Over time, Lori yearned for a different life and dreamed of having a husband and children. Sexual feelings were jolted awake with a priest's lingering kiss. She met nuns who embraced their sexuality. And then she fell deeply in love.
Literally shaken in a massive earthquake, Lori was finally forced to reassess her life. As walls crumbled, she rediscovered a part of herself she had locked away many years before. But, could she leave everything she had ever known and start anew?
Lori Norman's candid, eye-opening memoir chronicles her path toward becoming whole and embracing all that life had to offer her.
About the Author: Lori Norman, MSLS, MPS, MSW, worked as a teacher, clinical social worker, and hospice bereavement counselor. She has three master's degrees-in library science, pastoral studies, and social work.
Norman's work has appeared in America, Catholic Digest, Holistic Health Journal, and Highlights for Children. An excerpt from her memoir was a finalist in the (University of Victoria, BC, Canada) Malahat Review's Creative Nonfiction Contest and received an honorable mention in the Writers' Workshop of the Asheville, NC Memoirs Contest. Another excerpt won first place in the creative nonfiction/unpublished category at the Royal Palm Literary Awards of the Florida Writers Association.
One of Norman's children's books was a finalist for the Hunger Mountain Katherine Paterson Prize through the Vermont College of Fine Arts. She has also published Snowflakes and a Music Box: Healing from Childhood Sexual Abuse.
Norman lives in western North Carolina with her two loves: Bob and her garden.
