A New Book

Doing a bit of shameless self-promotion this week.  My friend and colleague, the Rev. Dr. Kathy Hurt and I have collaborated on a book about longings.  The book was born from our conversations about our own longings and our desire to make a book from these conversations.  The book contains short reflections on 26 different longings as well as a blessing for each one.  The book contains short sections where each of us share our own writing.  It is the type of book which you might just use as a short daily reading – taking one page a day and using it then to possibly reflect on your own longings. 

It is only available from www.Lulu.com .  When you get to the website, click on “bookstore” and then on the title “Whispers of the Soul;  A Deeper Look at Longing”. 

Here is one of my poems from the book;

What is longing?

if not an acorn

who knows it must

wait fifty years or

more, to become,

with luck, oak tree.

Compressed within

the one-inch acorn

lives knowledge of

tree, of twig, soil,

root, bird, worm

bark, sap.

No amount

of desire

can hurry it into

being.

~Penny Hackett-Evans

And here is one of Kathy’s Collects;

For longings themselves

Yearning

Never quite content

Yearning

We reach beyond ourselves

Towards

We know not what.

Are you there?

Is anyone there?

What is this pull

That draws us on

And will not let us rest:

Is that you?Mystery,

Hear us,

For just this once answer us

That we might know our longing

Is not in vain.

Amen.

~Kathy Hurt