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The Phoenix Spirit is proud to announce the upcoming release of Passage: Reflections on Life’s Pace and Patterns, a debut essay collection by longtime contributor Mary Lou Logsdon. Set to launch on October 6, 2026, the book is a welcome gathering of the wisdom, warmth, and quiet insight that Logsdon’s readers have come to treasure over the years.
Logsdon has been a mainstay writer at The Phoenix Spirit for over fourteen years, offering readers thoughtful companionship through life’s many seasons. Whether exploring the mysteries of time, the gifts of solitude, the ache of grief, or the unexpected grace found in a garden, her essays have a way of meeting readers exactly where they are. Along the way, she has generously shared her own adventures and vulnerabilities.
Passage brings together many of those essays alongside additional reflections, organized into seven thematic sections that move through time, self-care, community, spirituality, nature, learning, and memory. The result is a book that reads less like a collection and more like a conversation — one you can pick up and put down, return to in moments of need, and find something new in each time.
And that accessibility is very much by design. Each essay runs between 600 and 1,000 words, making them ideal for a morning reflection, a midday pause, or a quiet read before bed. In a world that often feels overwhelming and fast-moving, Passage offers something increasingly rare: an invitation to slow down.
“In telling our stories, we come to know ourselves and dare to let others know us.”
Peter Watkins, MDiv, spiritual director and faculty member at Sacred Ground Center for Spirituality and School of Formation, captured this quality beautifully: “We don’t often think of the words practical and spiritual as going together, but here they are, together at last! Mary Lou’s essays feel like mini-pilgrimages, and we get to journey with her along the way discovering golden nuggets of wisdom and hope.”
The book will resonate with a wide range of readers, spiritual seekers, people navigating recovery, those in the midst of life transitions such as retirement, career change, or loss, and anyone searching for steadiness in uncertain times. Importantly, while the essays are deeply spiritual in nature, they carry no connection to any particular religion or dogma, making them welcoming to readers of all backgrounds and beliefs.
Logsdon brings a rich and varied life to her writing. After a thirty-one-year career in information technology, she returned to school to study spirituality, earning a master’s degree in theology and a certificate in spiritual direction from St. Catherine University in St. Paul. As a spiritual director, she has spent years listening to people’s stories, helping them recognize patterns, find meaning, and discern what might come next. That same attentiveness and care flows through every page of Passage.
In her introduction, Logsdon writes of her hope that readers will notice where their own stories overlap with hers — and where they diverge. “In telling our stories,” she reflects, “we come to know ourselves and dare to let others know us.” It is an invitation as generous as the essays themselves.
Passage: Reflections on Life’s Pace and Patterns by Mary Lou Logsdon is available beginning October 6, 2026. You can find the book at Subtext in downtown St. Paul and Amazon.
Mary Lou will be doing a reading on November 18 from 7:00 to 8:00 p.m. at Subtext Bookstore in St. Paul.
The Phoenix Spirit Staff
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