I started this book in 2020, after listening to Sarah Blondin’s (free) guided meditations on the Insight Timer App for a few years. I finished it this morning.
Sarah’s guided meditations which appear at the end of each chapter or you can follow the easy URL links and listen to them (recommended) are wonderfully unlike any other I have experienced.
The reason for this has to do with why this book is now in my top 5 reads of all time.
First and foremost, Sarah is an exquisite writer. Her words, each one of them, feel so deliberate, intentional. She writes with experience, clarity, imagery, ease and conviction.
Put simply, this is a book about how to learn again (because we did this as kids), how to live a life guided by our hearts. It sounds simple and cheesy, as a practice it is anything but.
Often, I hear people describe themselves as Christian, Buddhist, Muslim, Atheist etc.These labels mean little to me personally apart from insight on how they were raised and info about their culture.
Show me who you are on a daily basis. How do you engage with people at home and at work when life is hard? What are your practices when life is falling apart or just plain disappointing? That is what interests me most because that is the (daily) work of being human. And often it is hard. And often it is joyful.
This is a book of encouragement and practice. It’s a guide about trying again (and again) to embrace life with grace and love and it is permission to feel all the feels.
This is hard work sometimes easier when it’s a practice. I am glad I took my sweet time reading this small book with so much wisdom. Some mornings I reading a few paragraphs and just let the words work their magic on my sad, foul or angry mood. A little goes a very long way with this special book. This is one I will keep close and happily gift again and again.