Mary leads us in a thoughtful reverie about the place that the experience of a catastrophe has in our life and growth. From personal catastrophes like a bad accident or a debilitating illness or the sudden death of a friend –  to collective experiences like fires, floods, terrorist attacks and riots, the nature of catastrophe is to come upon us suddenly, unexpectedly. Despite its traumatizing effects, it has the power to open us up to a larger sense of life and how we belong to it. From a large-scale event like a tornado to a small and intimate moment of losing a baby in a late miscarriage, a catastrophe is shocking and intense, frightening, and wonderful, and in this podcast, Mary goes there.