One Wild and Precious Life

Marianist PULSE is excited to welcome Mary Vanderhoof, Assistant Director of the Marianist Social Justice Collaborative, as our guest blogger this week. Prior to joining MSJC, Mary enjoyed a career in the pharmaceutical industry while also juggling volunteer work related to Catholic social justice issues and at the Marianist Family Retreat Center in Cape May, NJ. 

When we are children, we all dream about “what we will be when we grow up.” For me, this was literal. I had a recurring dream of being a nun and treating patients as a doctor, first in a typical American hospital setting, which would then fade and become a thatched-roof, round hut in Africa. So, as a child I told people I was going to become a missionary nun and doctor. That never came to pass, but remarkably, that dream did contain the seeds of a plan God had for my life.

After discovering as a teenager that I had a stronger pull toward the vocation of marriage than to vowed religious life, and after realizing that my grades were not quite competitive enough to get into medical school, I got a master’s degree, got married, and embarked on a career in the pharmaceutical industry. Balancing my vocation as a wife and mother with the demands of a career as a scientist was both challenging and rewarding. But those early seeds God had planted kept calling me to service, and I answered by becoming very involved in parish life, particularly with social justice causes. 

In 2006, I learned about a Catholic Relief Services program called the Global Solidarity Partnership, that partnered my diocese of Trenton, NJ with the diocese of Kasana-Luweero in Uganda. Eager to get involved, I volunteered to help address the need for clean water, with a goal of providing a well for a village that could improve health, free up women to work, and allow children to attend school rather than spend hours fetching water. With the help of my parish, we raised enough money for a well, and I was invited to travel with a CRS delegation to Uganda to see the results. 

Almost 40 years after having that childhood dream, I found myself in Africa, staying in a convent with Ugandan nuns who ran the local medical clinic, and visiting a village of thatch-roofed round huts where our well had been built! I was overwhelmed at how God had brought my dream to fruition! I continued to work with those sisters for many years, raising money for medical equipment and other improvements to the clinic.

Sister Rita Nabukeera with Mary in Uganda

Last summer, I began to think about retiring from my 35-year career in the pharmaceutical industry. I relished the thought of leaving what had become an increasingly demanding job, but I was also slightly terrified at the thought of having no job at all and knew I wanted purpose and direction for my “Act 2.” So, I asked God to help me dream once again what the next chapter of my life might look like. One night I was talking with my oldest daughter and described my “dream job”—one where I could work on social justice causes with a faith-based organization, work part-time to allow for time with my grandkids, and work remotely so I could do my job from home, or the beach, or my daughter’s homes, or wherever I found myself. Then I laughed and said, “I’ll never find a job like that.”

The very next day, I was looking for registration information for the 2017 Marianist Lay Assembly. Our family had met the Marianists at the Marianist Family Retreat Center in Cape May Point, NJ in 1997 and we had all become active volunteers there over the years. I was attracted to the Marianist charism and thought the Assembly would be a good way to explore it further. Quite “accidentally” my online search led me to a page where the new position of Assistant Director for the Marianist Social Justice Collaborative was posted. Reading the description, I got goosebumps, as it was almost exactly what I had described to my daughter the night before. I applied, and in October, I began this new chapter of my life that God and I together dreamed for me. Now my days are filled with purpose as I work with the volunteer issue teams to combat racism, advocate for immigrants and refugees, abolish the death penalty and encourage restorative justice, and promote inclusion in our Church for LGBTQ persons, increased leadership roles for women, and care for creation. All this, plus time for walks on the beach in Cape May and visits with my grandsons.

In her poem “The Summer Day,” Mary Oliver asks, “Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?” I plan to continue to dream with God. Dare to dream with God for your one wild and precious life and see where God leads you.

In solidarity,
Mary