Booking along

I invite you to settle in with me in the cozy den in our Sedona house. It is evening, and the glorious sunset having faded from the sky, there is a fire dancing in the little fireplace.

It is a perfect time to read---a favorite occupation of mine since early childhood.

One of the joys of being here is time to read and reflect. When I read, I make the books my own by underlining, putting marks and comments of various sorts in the margins, and sometimes even writing some of my thoughts out on an empty space at the end of a chapter or at the end of the book. I love the books that have a few blank pages at the end for just this sort of thing.

The three books I am currently spending the most time with are pictured above. The one about creating an altar in the world is a birthday gift from my brother and his wife. The author is one of my favorite: she writes so beautifully it is a pleasure to read her. This is one of those books that providentially came into my life at a perfect time. She has good suggestions I am following about how to go about building altars in the world--something I have believed in doing for many years, but she has a fresh "take" on it and is giving me lots to ponder. I recommend it to you if you like the idea of intentionally living out the sacred dimension of life in a practical, every day kind of way.

The book on Rumi is also a fresh approach. I have several books of his poetry and accounts of his life, etc. But this is the first one I have found that explores his spiritual practices, and in particular, the practice of gazing into another person's eyes with the full realization that eyes are the windows of the soul, and that is so gazing, one is gazing into the Divine Life that inhabits us all, whether or not we know or believe or experience it. I remember being at a retreat once in which our group divided into pairs and we were asked to gaze into each other's eyes in silence for a full ten minutes. It was an enormously moving experience for us, and I remember feeling so intensely the truth expressed in the greeting I learned in India as a child:

"Namaste." The Divine in me greets the Divine in you." It is interesting to me to notice how often in normal interactions, we humans avoid eye contact, or offer only the briefest such contact. Why? What are we avoiding? What are we afraid of? Especially if the other person is someone we know and trust, or at least have no reason to fear.

This book, which I am still reading, has inspired me to intentionally look a little longer than usual into people's eyes as I meet them--at the grocery store, the gas station, on the street walking the dog, or wherever. Its a way of acknowledging them as sacred persons, carriers of the divine image. Its a little way for me to practice realizing what we really are, or as we say in our Unity church, "The Truth of Being." Maybe it is something you would like to try!

The third book I picked up on our way here at a most wonderful used book store in Las Cruses, New Mexico. It is by far the largest used book store I have ever been--with used books in every category one can imagine. Not surprisingly for those who know me, I walked out with a large box of books. This one, on poetry as a spiritual practice, appealed to me because while I love most poetry, read it on and off, and even write a little on and off, I had not yet explored how it could function as a spiritual practice in my life on a frequent basis. So far, the book has not disappointed me. In fact, it has inspired me to write a couple poems already, and it may be that this blog will now and then contain a poem. Wouldn't that be a refreshing change?

As I reflect on how reading has enriched, guided, and supported my life, my heart is full of gratitude for people who do the hard work of writing good books, and I am back in touch with a feeling of "call" about doing this myself.

So settle in whenever you can, pick up a good book, and let yourself be gifted by its treasures--again, and again, and again.