I THIRST From Hunger to Unconditional Faith

In the heat of a Calcutta hotel room, the author looks out on a city of bonfires, strewn garbage, and unending honking, and wonders how she will endure ten days of it. She has come to India carrying an unnamed hunger, a restlessness she could not name. In the Mother House she comes face to face with Mother Teresa, and on a chapel cross she meets the two words "I THIRST." They stop her as if she had struck an invisible wall. In that moment her own unnamed hunger is given a name: thirst.

What follows is not a conversion but a slow undoing, the author moving through five stages of faith, first on Indian ground and then in the long seasons after:

• The Seeker, hungry and afraid, learning to live in faith instead of existing in fear at a gate where an answer arrived.
• The Believer, surprised to find the poorest of the poor, materially bankrupt but spiritually wealthy, smiling back at her smile.
• The Faithful, watching Calcutta's dying destitutes learn to die a better death and quietly teach her something about living.
• Unconditional Faith, in the seasons after the journey, the years that almost broke her, a card that said try again tomorrow, and a sister's letter that carried her through.
• Unconditional Everything, faith and love walking through the ordinary day, when a siren sings and love is sent into anger, seeing through God's eyes until knowing becomes living.

Each stage ends the same way: a kept line to carry, a single question to answer in the reader's own voice, and one tiny practice that turns reflection into action. Because the author's story is the trigger, never the center, these five stages become a mirror the reader holds up to their own life, whichever stage they are standing in right now.

I THIRST is for anyone in a season of loneliness or loss who is looking everywhere for a sign, something to awaken within them, for passion to return, or simply to feel okay. It promises that no matter where they are, they are growing into a masterpiece, remembering how to be in love and filled with faith, and believing that whatever life brings, they will be okay: not merely existing or surviving, but thriving in love and faith.