In honor of Solstice and the season of reading, here are not one but 2 books I pray you might pick up…I think you know I am a book obsessed human. Books have saved my life, and still the right book lands in my hand at the exact right moment time after time. I am always looking for and touched by the ways Life conspires to keep us nourished in just the right ways…those synchronistic connections with humans or animals or places, well, books for me also fit into the web of connectivity. I also believe that the simple act of reading is a rebellious act in our fast and wickedly demanding current culture—slow down, touch some pages, drink some words, just be…
The 1st is the most heart and mind opening book of 2021 for me: BEWILDERMENT by Robert Powers (Yes, author of Overstory).
The 2nd, The Opposite of Hate A field guide to repairing our humanity by Sally Kohn
Bewilderment is epic in its lyrical beauty, tender in a speak-to of the reality of raising children in this time, and mind blowing it its introduction (to me) of astrobiology and offering a feel for what very likely exists out there in the vast cosmos (oh how feeling the vast cosmos seems like medicine right now). Life changing, heart bursting and gorgeously tender. Yes, I wept many times, yes, I had to go back and re-read passages again and again. Yes, run to your local bookstore and buy 6. This is an important book; another chance to grow into the possibility of our existence while also sipping on the grief and fear that rides with us on this journey.
The Opposite of Hate is not love she begins…Sally brought the word hatred into the conversation in an important way by “normalizing” what hatred is—and the truth that we all act out hatred…this in itself was important for me—that even the subtle, mean, thoughts, yes, the never-spoken ones, is a kind of hatred…so she wasn’t accepting hatred or normalizing it as ok but rather challenging us to face our own acts of hatred and clean them up. What new world can be born of taking these powerful actions, however passive, out of the shadows…claim your hatred, shift it, let’s not tarry in our collective movements towards…CONNECTION which is how we express and share and spread LOVE.
