Picks from September 2007
Married Women Who Love Women by Carren Strock
About the author:Carren Strock is an internationally published writer, photographer and painter. Her first book, Married Women Who Love Women, was published by Doubleday in 1998, reissued in paperback by Alyson Publications in 2000. She is currently working on the second edition. http://erols.com/carrens
Notes on the book:
During middle age, after 25 years of happy marriage to a man, Carren Strock fell in love with a woman. After a period of intense confusion and pain, Strock came to accept her sexuality and realize that there were other women who discovered lesbianism in the context of a heterosexual marriage. This book is based on interviews that Strock conducted with more than 100 women who had that experience--60 percent of whom were between the ages of 36 and 55--as well as their husbands, children, and lovers. Some women in this situation have remained in the closet, either repressing their desires or keeping their affairs secret. Others have come out to husbands and friends and been able to incorporate their lesbianism into their marriages. Others have ended their marriages.
Strock divides her report into three sections--" The Discovery," "A New Life," and "Selfhood" --tracking the stages of development of same-sex orientation from first awareness to learning the pros and cons of coming out to dealing with new levels of sexual intimacy.
The Seven Whispers, A Spiritual Practice for Times Like These by Christina Baldwin
About the author:Christina Baldwin is an eloquent and witty speaker and educator who integrates the spiritual journey and the practical path in her retreats and workshops. She has taught nationally and internationally since the mid-1970s, and has contributed classic books in the emerging bodies of knowledge around personal writing, group process and spirituality. Her first work, One to One: Self-Understanding through Journal Writing is a pioneering text that has remained in continuous print for a quarter of a century. Its sequel, Life's Companion, Journal Writing as a Spiritual Quest, extended the art of journal writing to spiritual practice. Her most recent book is Storycatcher: Making Sense of Our Lives Through the Power and Practice of Story. Christina is co-founded PeerSpirit Inc., an educational company, with author and naturalist Ann Linnea devoted to building and sustaining a culture of conversation. http://peerspirit.com and http://storycatcher.net
Notes on the book:
The connection with our spirit is like a phone line, explains Christina Baldwin in The Seven Whispers. "Sometimes I turn the ringer off. Sometimes I ignore the ringing. Sometimes I pick up the phone with suspicion. Sometimes I get impatient with the interruption." The irony, of course, is that "unlike a lot of other calls, the one from Spirit is the one we are hoping to receive." Baldwin excels in helping readers converse with the divine. Here, she devotes a chapter to each of the "Seven Whispers of spiritual commonsense":
- Maintain peace of mind ("the cornerstone of a spiritual life")
- Move at the pace of guidance ("rehumanize our speed of life")
- Practice certainty of purpose ("a commitment to figuring out why we are here and what we are going to do about it")
- Surrender to surprise (this helps us "practice the resilience we need to respond to whatever life offers")
- Ask for what you need and offer what you can ("become spiritual traders of life's energy, time and abundance")
- Love the folks in front of you ("look for the good in people even if we don't think it's there")
- Return to the world (remove yourself from the simulated world and "return to the world of the body, the senses, the world of Nature")
Inner Compass: An Invitation to Ignatian Spirituality by Margaret Silf
About the author:Margaret Silf is a spiritual writer and retreat leader. Margaret has a B.A. from the University of London, England, and an M.A. in English from the University of Keele, England. She has studied with the Jesuits on the subjects of prayer and making the Spiritual Exercises in daily life. She lives with her husband in North Staffordshire, England.
Margaret Silf is passionate about making Christian spirituality, and especially Ignatian spirituality, accessible to people with no theological background. She has written many books on the spiritual journey for 21st century pilgrims, including Close to the Heart, Wayfaring, Sacred Spaces, and the CPA award winning The Gift of Prayer. Her latest titles are Wise Choices and Roots and Wings: The Human Journey from a Speck of Stardust to a Spark of God.
Notes on the book:
Ignatian Spirituality is appealing to many people because it enables a person to see the ordinariness of life, believes God communicates with us in our hearts through prayer, particularly reflections of scripture, and by looking at our lives and reflecting on scripture, we can discern God's will in our lives.
Inner Compass is an introduction to the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola, the foundation of Ignatian spirituality. It is designed to help readers discover their individual selves and their relationship with God through prayer, discernment, and reflective living, even if they are not familiar with the dynamics of the Exercises. This practical and experience-based guide is helpful to both newcomers and to those quite familiar with Ignatian spirituality.
The book is divided into fifteen easy-to-read chapters which are subdivided for individual reflection if it is desired. Each chapter also contains helpful prayer exercises that can be used at the time of reading or as prayer helps at a later date.
