On Fridays our television remains in the closet, our laptops are closed and stored away, and the use of our phones is limited. After breakfast and coffee we begin the mile-long walk to the park, where we descend into the woods and make our way along a rocky trail to a small stream. It is there that we sit, my girls climbing over a fallen tree or wading in the shallow water. We watch for what is around us – sapsuckers and sycamores and scurrying squirrels. This time each week is a kind of school in which we learn to recognize the sacred.

The end of the world as we know it…