Where Wonder Lives: Practices for Cultivating the Sacred in Your Daily Life

by Fabiana Fondevila, David Steindl-Rast (Foreword)

Take a journey by map through your inner landscape to discover a life of awe, enchantment, and radical aliveness

• Explains how experiencing awe and wonder can transform our lives, leading us to feel more satisfied, peaceful, and open to others

• Offers contemporary and time-honored practices--from mindfulness to dreamwork and working with plants--that help you reconnect with Nature and your imagination, open your heart, and find vitality and enchantment

• Explores ways of examining and embracing our shadow, deepening our relationships, and creating meaningful personal rituals

Where Wonder Lives invites you on a journey, an expedition through your own inner landscape to reawaken to the mystery of life. The travels are by way of an imaginary map through 9 distinct territories. In each, you explore the terrain, then are led to a rich set of contemporary and time-honored practices--from mindfulness to dreamwork, cloudscapes, and working with plants--that help you rebuild a life of vitality, connection, and enchantment.

There is no prescribed order in which to explore the map. Rather, the invitation is to begin at the territory that calls to you, or perhaps that which is most challenging. Each territory reflects and amplifies the others, and you will instinctively arrive at the practices that you need most. The Jungle delves into our original deep kinship with Nature and helps you rekindle your inner wildness. The Garden takes you on a journey through your senses, and the River unfurls your imagination. The Mountaintop presents a bird’s-eye view of your life, while the Swamp delves into your inner shadow and delivers gold. The Village helps us deepen our bonds and relationships, the Lighthouse teaches us to quiet our minds, and the Fire inspires us to create meaningful ceremonies and personal rituals. The Ocean looks into the topography of the heart and offers practices to awaken the heart’s most powerful awe, joy, compassion, gratitude, and love, the mother of them all.

Throughout the journey you are immersed in a world of wonder and awe, discovering new possibilities for learning and expansion in ordinary life. Face to face with the mystery of life, Where Wonder Lives makes you feel at once both infinitely small and part of a vast, unfathomable universe--all while helping you to see the world anew.

Genres: Spirituality, Nonfiction

224 pages, Paperback

Published February 16, 2021

Reviews

[Miriam · Rating 5 out of 5]

beautiful and inspiring! to read more than once!

[Ana Battaglia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Is the world a grey place filled with grim news, media and politics? Or is it the same old magic theater that has captivated human imagination for centuries? Or what if they are both one and the same? How can we open the door that separates these two realities? Oh, there are many keys, ancient and new. Fabiana Fondevila invites us to try many of them to see which one fits our own lock. Her book is like a trip through many different landscapes, all of them endearing. Where Wonder Lives is a book to read and go back to, letting its invitations grow within us.

[M Gordon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fabiana does the remarkable here: she shows us how wonder exists everywhere, if we will only explore it and cultivate it in our own lives. Her writing ranges from fact-based scientific, to the sacred; she exposes "paradoxes" -- weeds can be sacred! But there is always a connection to what and how we can DO -- physically DO -- that keeps this book flowing ahead. This is a book you'll want to come back to time and time again; any of the practices she teaches can change our way of being. Who doesn't want to experience the magical feelings of wonder?

[Lakshmi S · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fabiana Fondevilla takes us on an extraordinary journey. Each chapter in Where Wonder Lives guides us to a deeper intimacy with the Wonder all around us. This book is a treasure. It has taken me to a profound understanding of so many facets of the path of self inquiry and discovery. A must read!

[Alexandra Otto · Rating 5 out of 5]

Where wonder lives shows you a way to get to know esential parts of yourself and how to face your life in a a new way with those parts you found. It has a lot of useful exercices and is written in a way that makes you feel loved and acceptet.

[Karen Thomas · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have had the privilege of taking Fabiana’s annual courses on several occasions and when I read her book it was a pleasure to rediscover her generosity and spirit. Her invitation to meet every aspect of our true nature and what the world with all its wonders offers has been mind-shifting to me. I highly recommend this book to anybody who is on the path of becoming the best version of herself or himself to live this life experience fully and wholeheartedly.


Where Wonder Lives: Practices for Cultivating the Sacred in Your Daily Life

[Mauricio · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was looking for a book to get out of a rut and, to be honest, picked this one by the cover. Wonderful (pun intended) title, beautiful illustration and the back-cover blurb begins: “Take a journey by map through your inner landscape to discover a life of awe, enchantment, and radical aliveness.” It delivered exactly that, and then some. I took the nine-stop trip through my emotional life, understood where and how I lost my way, and then followed the sensible and down-to-earth practices to get back on track. I thank the author and whatever powers put her book in my path for this rebirth I’m experiencing. One of the practices stressed throughout the book has to do with being grateful, so I came here to write this review. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

[Kate Henderson · Rating 1 out of 5]

I really did not enjoy this book.
The premise - 'cultivating the sacred in your daily life' - sounded right up my street and I loved this premise. However the execution was all over the place.
I'm still not overly sure what the book was or what it was trying to achieve. I found the language to be incredibly baffling and random, and I wasn't sure what or where these 'practises' were.
At times this book was fiction and was weaving a story, and at others it was non-fiction and explaining things that I don't think had any relevance or interest to me.

Really disappointed wit this - not at all what I expected, and feel pretty let down. DOESN'T do what it says 'on-the'tin'

[Julie Wilbur · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a good book on how to bring joy and wonder into your life. I probably would have rated it higher if I hadn’t read a few books like it already. There wasn’t a lot of new information (go out in nature, spend time with friends, etc.) but it did have some good tips on how to actually do these things, so that part was worth it.

[Cathy]

I wanted to like this, and I'm not sure why I didn't. The description sounds like something I would love. But I couldn't get into it, and after finishing the first chapter, I wasn't looking forward to reading any more. Maybe I'll try again at a different time in my life.

[Ginny · Rating 4 out of 5]

Inspiring book that actually gives you concrete ideas as to how to incorporate wonder into your life. I know I will revisit this book time and again. Lovely!