a starting point

Elyse suggested I begin with a question.

There is bastante literature on sexuality and spirituality of marriage and religious life. How marriage unifies you and your spouse with God, how you express your sexuality and your spirituality with your spouse. Likewise religious, how you can express your sexual nature within the religious life. Lots of conversing going on about these vocations. Not a lot being said about what happens outside of those two states, besides the whole Chastity bit. I get the practical side. No sex. Ok thanks, Church, for making that clear. What about the rest of it?

Marriage and religious life are not the only two states of being. I, as a single woman, am not simply waiting around for the call to one of these two vocations. I am not a failure because I haven't found a husband and I am, as Elyse says, old (old=27). I am not simply in transition from adolescence to adulthood, where I only become who I am supposed to be within the context of marriage or religious life. I am myself. now.

What does that mean? What does it mean to be single? What does it mean to be Catholic in this context? What does it mean for me to be a woman? How do I express my sexual and spiritual nature now, as I am?