It’s been four years since I became a nun, four years since I promised myself—promised God—that I would stay clean in mind, body, and spirit. I kept that vow with the kind of discipline I didn’t even know I possessed. My days were quiet, predictable, almost peaceful. Morning prayers, chores, Scripture study… the rhythm became my shield, and behind it, everything in me felt still.
Or so I thought.
Everything changed the day my new neighbor moved in.
I only stepped outside to empty the small basket of dried leaves from the chapel garden. Nothing extraordinary. Nothing unusual. But when I looked up and saw him—this man carrying boxes, trying to balance a sleepy little girl on his hip—something inside me jolted awake.
It wasn’t dramatic. Just… a spark. A warmth that rushed through me so fa
