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Meditative Story

It doesn't have to be this hard: Mariann Budde

Meditative Story

WaitWhat

Meditation, Mindfulness, Society And Culture, Personal Stories, Mental Health, Spirituality, Health & Fitness, Religion & Spirituality, Storytelling, Society & Culture

4.63.2K Ratings

🗓️ 27 May 2026

⏱️ 31 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

A street in Honduras. A conference room. The fifth lap of a bike ride. Crisis can descend on you in unexpected places – and so can clarity. All that’s required of you, really, is to be there for it, and to stretch yourself in ways you hadn’t expected. Mariann Budde, bishop of the Episcopal Diocese in Washington, DC, tells of three defining moments of struggle and grace in her life.

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Transcript

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0:00.0

There's no dusk in Central America.

0:09.0

It just goes from light to dark.

0:13.0

So it's the cusp of dark.

0:17.0

And I need to walk.

0:29.6

I walk and walk and walk through the urban streets.

0:33.6

The air is dry and hot, punctuated only by the smell of burning garbage. Laundry hangs limp from the windows.

0:40.3

Dogs are barking.

0:42.3

My head is spinning.

0:44.3

What am I even doing here?

0:46.3

What can I possibly contribute in just a year?

0:50.3

I'm disappointed, but I'm also angry because my perception of what I thought I was going to do here

0:58.2

and what I'm doing here are just completely different. I ask myself over and over, does it have to be so hard?

1:12.6

Is it always going to be this hard?

1:16.6

I'm not consciously praying.

1:19.6

It's more like a cry.

1:21.6

But I can only explain what happens next

1:24.6

as a clear answer from another realm, which has never happened to me before.

1:41.8

Marian Buddy made headlines last year. When, as the Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese in

1:47.0

Washington, D.C., she condemned the use of tear gas against peaceful demonstrators on the grounds

1:53.1

of St. John's Episcopal Church. But finding clarity in one's personal life isn't always so easy,

1:59.7

as Bishop Buddy reveals in this episode.

2:01.6

On her way to becoming the first woman to hold the city's highest clerical post,

...

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