Wide Spot: an internal opening created by the convergence of heart and word.

I wrote my first book about three months after I started reading, enchanted by the written word that could create whole new worlds. I wanted to weave that magic, too.

Sixty-odd years later, I am still trying to conjure life out of words. I know that the right words can ripen my heart, root me in deeper reality, and reveal the shining effervescence in which we live, and move, and have our being. So I write to express the sacredness—the unimaginable depth and joy and sorrow—of daily life. I write because I long to turn that which is half-dead into dancing and that which is skin-deep into fathomless mystery.

Here’s what you’ll find on this website:

Singing the Red Dress Song” is a book-length collection of essays which trace the uneven/hilarious/heartbreaking path of growth in spiritual life.

The “Writings” page contains “Wide Spot,” the accumulated short, never-mention-God essays that I write monthly for the Valley Voice newspaper; and “Stillpoints,” which covers a broad territory: bears, consciousness, Alzheimer’s, St. Francis of Assisi, skinny dipping, and Eucharist, to name a few. Sprinkled throughout all this writing are podcasts offering contemplative practices or a spoken-word version of a given essay.

The other pages— “About,” “Calendar,” “Collaborations”—should be self-explanatory. If you’re interested in more information, just email me here. I’m happy to share retreat outlines and practices.

You can help me defray the costs of keeping all this material available by donating to Therese’s Wide Spot. Located on the bottom of each page is an email address to which you can send an e-transfer. (However, e-transfers only work for Canadians.) Alternatively, you can send a cheque of any nationality to the address listed there. And whether you donate or not, please feel free to use what you find here. All I ask is attribution—because I wrote all this for you.

Latest Posts

Wide Spot: Daily Bread

There are some big things facing us these days: “us” collectively as in the human race, and “us” as in my little family. Some of those collective big things are so big—global climate change, vicious politics—that I have no idea how to repair, heal, or change them. Sure, I know how to complain; I also …

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Wide Spot: Some Assembly Required

I have been reassembling our freezers, moving turkey and frozen wontons and homemade soup from the inside freezer to the newly empty outside freezer. It’s empty because friends have been able to go home: their frozen chickens, applesauce and tomato paste have gone home, too. I am also re-assembling my office. Strewn across desk and …

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Wide Spot: Fireweed

I have been thinking that we may have reached the chronic, as opposed to acute, stage of our forest fire saga. For many of us, evacuation orders and alerts are rescinded, at least for now. For others, there’s at least a system to check on livestock and land. People are making plans to sustain a …

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Wide Spot: Aim High

One predictable result of a good retreat is the scramble at the end when people start asking, “How can we keep this great community going?” Then follows a frenzied exchange of emails and phone numbers.  Equally predictable is that any community formed simply for its own continuance inevitably falls apart. I find this depressing. I …

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Reader Reflections

  1. You have my attention, Therese, i’ve been wrestling with the destructive side of God/nature for a long time. It scares…

  2. Thank you, Therese! I have found these last 6+ weeks to be such an intense time of unease. But still…

  3. “God saves us from nothing and stands with us in all things.” Yes! As I age, the truth of this…

  4. Response to “The Destroyer” This writing “hits home” to me. While wrestling with how to deal with the destruction going…

Like what you read? I would love to have your support!
Canadians can send an e-transfer to descamp@widespot.ca. Everyone else, I take cheques of all nationalities.
Box 452, New Denver, BC, V0G 1S0, Canada