Hello, I’m Bethany.

I am a writer, speaker, teacher, and mentor, but foremost, the mother to four flourishing young adults, and the wife of Mark, a witty visionary with whom I am sharing the first season of my podcast.

Cloistered Away is a reader-supported newsletter and podcast, the latest iteration and namesake of the Cloistered Away blog I established in 2007. Each week, I write musings about our holy, ordinary work as women, mothers, and teachers—and ultimately about the fruitfulness of a cloistered life. The underpinnings aim to gird readers with fortitude, encouragement, and beneficial resources as they richly establish homes with beauty, truth, and goodness.

The original Cloistered Away blog still remains available with more than 800 archived blog posts to browse and enjoy, but most of my writing will now happen in this Substack space. You can read more about that transition here.

As always, thank you for your support and participation as a reader, especially as I embrace new ways of writing and forming meaningful camaraderie online. Welcome!

Why Cloistered Away?

The word cloistered is rarely used in our modern context. Historically, cloisters were considered the heart of the medieval monasteries, a place where monks would have meditated, studied, and exercised. In contrast to the darker cathedrals, a cloister provided light and sheltered passage around gardens and courtyards, making them ideal for manuscript writing and life within the sacred space. Cloisters are a beautiful architectural feature in many of the world’s first universities, too.

To be cloistered is to be sheltered or shut away from the world. Although our family has not literally shut away from the world, metaphorically, mothering and teaching my children from home has been a cloistered undertaking, a holy work often obscured from the public eye. Likewise, our home has provided a figurative cloister for our children as they have studied, played, and grown toward their adult years. It has been much more messy and rambunctious than the word might allude, yet through all of of our ordinary endeavors—mealtimes, books, community relationships, travel, studies, outdoor play—our life cloistered away has drawn me, and eventually each of them, closer to God and more deeply into what it means to be human.

My work here is a figurative way of welcoming you in, a respite and resource for the holy, ordinary work given to you.

A Final Note

If you have at all enjoyed my writings, resources, and podcast, consider becoming a paid subscriber. It’s the strongest way to help support my ongoing work here and for you to receive a more robust experience as a reader, including access to more writing, subscriber-only podcasts, workshops, chat features, and the comments section. I’m so grateful for the support!

Naturally, I understand that everyone will not always be positioned to pay to be here, so as a free subscriber you will still receive a monthly newsletter and the podcast recordings and notes. All of which I hope will continue to nourish you and your home with truth, beauty, and goodness.

With the warmest gratitude,

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