Where Hearts Unfold
By Josephine von Dohlen
In Romano Guardini’s The Lord, he illustrates Christ’s years of public life and ministry as a time when “the power of His personality and the vital truth of His gospel gripped all who saw Him.”
“Everywhere hearts unfolded; miracle flowered on miracle, and it seemed as though now surely the approaching kingdom of God must appear in all its unconcealed abundance,” Guardini writes.
When I first came upon these words I was struck with what felt like finding what I had always been looking for — that I am made to be a place of encounter where hearts unfold, living thoroughly in the abundance of goodness that surrounds me, no matter the situation. The past few years have been eye opening to the challenges that such a mission presents while giving me a deeper window into my vocation and heart as a woman.
The first thing I noticed while piecing together my first apartment in Virginia just across the river from Washington, D.C., was that it was empty. The white walls, grey carpet, and popcorn ceiling didn’t really feel like home, and on top of all that, I didn’t own much.
Cultivating the furniture, the gallery wall, and the glassware took time rummaging through thrift stores and scouring Marketplace, but perhaps what took the longest was finding the community to fill my home. Hearts can only unfold so much on their own. It took reconnecting with old friends and making new ones, taking up a new sport, and most of all, truly putting in the work to know myself.
Perhaps this is the hardest part. My early twenties have been a learning and a relearning of who I am and who I want to be. It’s been starting over, wishing I could have a fresh start, and realizing that maybe I already have. As Thomas Merton says in No Man is An Island, “This discovery of ourselves is always a losing of ourselves — a death and a resurrection.”
But as I take it all in, there is a vast abundance, even with so many desires left to be fulfilled in God’s timing. I relish in the ability to sit my closest friends at a long table in my backyard, adorned with florals and fine china (thrifted ;) eating freshly homemade pasta as lights sparkle above us. I find joy in caring for my home and running to my friends the second they need me. I’ve found a job I truly enjoy, after years of searching for something that finally fit. I’m dreaming big dreams and living a full life.
Women long to nurture, to care, to make beautiful, to adore. We find community by coming fully into ourselves. We create and we attract, each in so many different ways. Our feminine hearts come into themselves through sharing the gift that we are with those before us. There’s no better time to fully grow into this than the now. There’s an abundance of life that lies before you.
Josephine von Dohlen ‘19 is a marketing associate at an independent all girls Catholic school in Vienna, Virginia. In her free time, she enjoys curating dinner parties, homemaking, and dabbles in calligraphy and illustration. Her current favorite breakfast? An everything bagel with an egg and a piece of fruit.
