Heather King's Blog

THE FLAME WITHIN: WRITING YOUR LIFEJOIN ME AT ST. ANDREW’S ABBEY IN VALYERMO, CALIFORNIA JULY 6-10, 2026 FOR A WEEK-LONG MEMOIR WRITING WORKSHOP!!

This week-long memoir writing workshop with award-winning author Heather King offers a unique opportunity to reflect, write, and grow. Designed for writers at any stage, the workshop emphasizes the value of the creative process, while the peaceful rhythms of St. Andrew’s Abbey will afford space for silence, self-inquiry, and honest expression.

Through daily talks on craft—covering story, theme, structure, and revision—as well as focused sessions on how to begin and how to sustain a writing practice, participants will be guided in how to shape their life experiences into meaningful narrative.

To encourage digging deeper, the workshop will include writing prompts, group discussion, and the optional opportunity to read work aloud. The techniques of memoir, as well as the value of writing as a practice of attention and transformation will be emphasized.

In addition to structured time, the retreat allows for plenty of solitude and open space. Participants are encouraged to explore the grounds, pray or reflect in the chapel, join the monks for the Divine Office and daily Mass, write under the trees, or engage in unhurried conversation.

“Every human being has an authentic voice and a unique story. Let’s get together—human-to-human—and start telling them.

The post JOIN ME AT ST. ANDREW’S ABBEY IN VALYERMO, CALIFORNIA FOR A MEMOIR-WRITING WORKSHOP!! first appeared on HEATHER KING.

In this week’s Angelus News column, I give my take on a recent visit to Philadelphia’s Barnes Foundation, a world-class collection of Impressionist, Post-Impressionist, and Modernist paintings.

So overwhelming was the bounty that I ended up collapsed on a bench, gazing mutely for several minutes at a tiny Cézanne of a white plate, a bunch of grapes, and a single peach.

In other news, I am reading The Intellectual Life by Fr. Antonin Sertillanges, OP, first published in 1921–who says I’m out of step with contemporary culture?–boning up on Rembrandt and van Gogh for my Jan. trip to Amsterdam, ascertained from my airbnb host there that I can do a laundry at her place and put it on a drying rack, booked a shuttle bus from Tucson to Phoenix’s Sky Harbor Airport for Dec 22 when I fly to NYC for Christmas, made a Walmart Superstore run for the Thanksgiving cookies and snacks I’ll bring to my friends in Santa Maria, CA, that week, watered the oleander out back, vacuumed the car, filled the birdfeeder for the finches, and on the advice of a friend from Maine just my age have started doing this Japanese exercise routine, only takes 3 or 4 minutes, called Radio Taiso.

According to an article I read, the whole country performs these exercises every morning in synch and then they are all cheerful and limber and live to be 120.

All together now!

The post THE FABULOUS ART OF PHILADELPHIA’S BARNES FOUNDATION, THE INTELLECTUAL LIFE, AND RADIO TAISO first appeared on HEATHER KING.

This week’s Angelus News column is a reflection on a 2024 documentary, directed by Oren Rudavsky, called Elie Wiesel: Soul on Fire.

Plus the Holy Spirit Adoration Sisters, art galore, and the glories of Philadelphia gardens over at Substack.

And my take on Jane Brox’s Silence: A Social History of One of the Least Understood Elements of Our Lives.

If you’ve enjoyed my work for the last year or two, or 10, or 15, plase think about supporting it with a free or paid ($5/month) subscription at DESIRE LINES: BOOKS, CULTURE, ART.

The post AN ELIE WIESEL DOCUMENTARY, PHILADELPHIA GARDENS, AND SILENCE first appeared on HEATHER KING.

I’m quite proud of this week’s Angelus News column, in which I make a connection between David Cronenberg’s 1987 body-horror movie The Fly and today’s horrifying movement toward “designer babies.” Happy Halloween.

I’ve been in Philadelphia most of the week, drinking in the art, the grand old buildings of brick and stone, the autumn foliage and a whole bunch else that will time to process.

One highlight was a trip to Maple Farm in Chestnut Hill, which was flowing over with pumpkins, squash, Indian corn, apple cider doughnuts, home-made jams, jellies, pickles, and candies, bright bouquets, fresh produce…my friend and I took advantage of the pick-your-own zinnias feature which, because it’s late in the season, were 10 bucks for a hundred blooms!

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The post BRINGING IN THE SHEAVES first appeared on HEATHER KING.

This week’s Angelus News column: A pilgrimage to the Louis Armstrong House Museum in Corona, Queens.

“He was born poor, died rich, and never hurt anyone on the way,” eulogized Duke Ellington.

I’m fascinated by the way we order our days. Ideally, one of mine includes a celebration of, and tending to, the spiritual, emotional mental and physical…

I am off to Philadelphia next week! My friend with whom I’m staying (Philly born-and-bred) has pointed out the Longwood Gardens Meadow Garden.

Another pilgrimage!

For biweekly posts and daily Notes, head over to my Substack at DESIRE LINES: BOOKS, CULTURE, ART.

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The post THE LOUIS ARMSTRONG HOUSE MUSEUM, A TRIP TO PHILLY, AND A DAY IN THE LIFE first appeared on HEATHER KING.

Emil Kapaun (1916-1951), a Catholic priest and U.S. Army Chaplain from Kansas, exhibited heroic virtue as a POW during the Korean War. “Just for a moment,” one of his soldiers said, “he could turn a mud hut into a cathedral.”

My weekly piece in Angelus News.

Head over to Substack for a piece called Pilgrim Feet and a reflection on my love of walking.

Autumn fever is upon me and I am headed near the end of the month to Philadelphia, there to spend a week with a friend and EXPLORE.

“When Jesus takes you into himself to give you to souls, wherever you go means a life of isolation. We find that apparent contradiction in Christ, a hidden, contemplative soul who ended up in giving himself to men, allowing himself to be consumed by them.”

—Charles de Foucauld, desert hermit (1858-1916)

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The post EMIL KAPAUN, HEROIC P.O.W, AND A TRIP TO PHILADELPHIA first appeared on HEATHER KING.

My latest YT video, generated by a bout of acedia…the noonday demon…or was it just self-pity?…

HAPPY MONDAY!!

The post ONE DAY AT A TIME–AND WE NEVER GET A DAY OFF! first appeared on HEATHER KING.

This week’s Angelus column is about Mother Antonia Brenner (1926-2013), a Beverly Hills wife, mother and socialite who visited Tijuana’s notorious maximum security prison, chucked it all, moved into her own cell, and ministered to the prisoners for decades. In all that time, she summed up, “I’ve never had a moment of depression.”

If you’re anything like me, every once in a while, from out of nowhere, come the thoughts: What’s it all for? Have I ever really offered anything, sacrificed anything, meant anything? Is what I do just busy work, performed robotically simply so I don’t lose my mind?

Maybe fall more than any other season tends to bring such musings on.

Anyway, the other day I realized: You are thinking as man does, not as God does (Viz. Mt. 16:23, Mark 8:33).

Only humans, with our egos and desire to “make a mark,” are remotely concerned with such things. Look at God, who creates gazilions of flowers, trees, clouds, and people, none of which/whom are ever really seen or cherished or appreciated. I’m sure He appreciates all efforts on our own part to pitch in, help carry the load, persevere.

SUNSET IN TUCSON

The post THINKING AS GOD DOES, NOT AS MAN DOES first appeared on HEATHER KING.

Churches and gardens are one way to order travel. I visited lots of both during a recent trip to Ireland, then NYC.

This and the three below are of the Victorian Walled Garden at Kylemore Abbey in Connemara, Ireland.

DAHLIAS FROM THE NATIONAL BOTANIC GARDENS OF IRELAND, DUBLIN

MY FRIEND’S BACKYARD GARDEN IN DUBLINCONSERVATORY GARDEN, CENTRAL PARK, NYC

NEW YORK BOTANIC GARDEN, NATIVE PLANT GARDEN, BRONX, NYC

MET CLOISTERS GARDEN, NYCThe post GARDENS OF EARTHLY DELIGHT first appeared on HEATHER KING.

God’s will, says Guardini, is what “by his decree should be accomplished in the world” — and that depends, absolutely, on our cooperation and consent to his grace. Read all about it in this week’s Angelus News.

Next Thursday I fly out to Dublin. Why? To host a MEMOIR WRITING WORKSHOP at Kylemore Abbey!

We’ve already calendared out next year for September 6-12, 2026, so put that in the hopper.

We had a death in the family this week, my 23-year-old grand-niece back in New Hampshire: car accident. Then–the chlldren in Minneapolis.

Makes you kind of want to hunker down.

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The post WEEKLY NEWSLETTER: ROMANI GUARDINI’S “THE LORD’S PRAYER,” CONNEMARA, TRAGIC YOUNG DEATHS first appeared on HEATHER KING.