This week we talk to author and spiritual director Charlotte Donlon about the uniqueness of one very familiar word: belong. We talk about loneliness and finding spiritual community as we engage with her recent book The Great Belonging: How Loneliness Leads Us To Each Other. Charlotte’s honesty about her journey with bipolar disorder as well as her and her husband’s journey to find spiritual community provide an important starting point for what it means to belong in all aspects of life.

Charlotte is a writer, certified spiritual director, and podcast host. She holds an MFA in creative writing from Seattle Pacific University where she studied creative nonfiction. Her work has appeared in The Washington Post, The Christian Century, Christianity Today, Catapult, The Millions, Mockingbird, and elsewhere. The Great Belonging: How Loneliness Leads Us to Each Other is her first book. Learn more about Charlotte, her writing, and her work here.

Music by Robert Ebbens

Artwork by Eric Wright/Metamora Design