The Wild Land Within: Cultivating Wholeness through Spiritual Practice

by Lisa Colon DeLay

The wilderness of the heart may be untamed, but you don't need to go there alone.

In The Wild Land Within, spiritual companion and podcast host Lisa Col[n DeLay offers a map to our often-bewildering inner terrain, inviting us to deepen and expand our encounters with God. Through specific spiritual practices from early desert monastics, as well as Latinx, Black, and indigenous contemplatives, she guides us in cultivating lives of devotion.

In opening ourselves up to God's healing, we will inevitably come across wounds we didn't even know we had. Col[n DeLay uses theology and neuroscience to help us work through buried fear or pain and find embodied spiritual healing from trauma.

A contemplative map to the wilderness of the heart, The Wild Land Within guides us through intimate geography in which God dwells.

Genres: Spirituality, Christian

203 pages, Kindle Edition

Published April 6, 2021

Reviews

[Literary Redhead · Rating 5 out of 5]

A superb look at spiritual direction drawing upon diverse sources for a more whole Christian practice. This wise and wonderful book strengthened my faith and clarified spiritual questions I’ve long pondered. The Spiritual Practice section at each chapter’s end was especially helpful in consolidating learnings. Highly recommended!

5 of 5 Stars

Thanks to the author, Broadleaf Books, and Edelweiss for the ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

[Elizabeth · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a phenomenal introduction to spiritual formation and several spiritual practices from a variety of Christian traditions. The author weaves the metaphors of land and weather into explanations of soul care. She pulls insight from topical experts, theologians, writers, creatives that reflect an expansive view of faith and God. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and look forward to referencing it again and again.

[Trey Ferguson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was such a great help to me in so many ways. It encouraged me to slow down and explore parts of me I’d long silenced and ignored. It caused some discomfort and led to some wrestling, and some acceptance of things I would rather not have acknowledged. And the entire time, I felt safe. I felt excited about reading the next chapter and trying some of the recommendations.

I’ve changed some of my daily habits as a result, and I feel a bit closer to wholeness because of the wisdom Lisa shares and her heart for the Divine.

[Traci Rhoades · Rating 5 out of 5]

What's it really like to take the time to get to know ourselves through spiritual practices? Who are faithful guides?

This book answers these questions and introduces us to a variety of church traditions and cultures. Well done!

[Rohadi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Pace yourself. Work through and make sure you make it to the end. There are lifelong insight contained within.

[Phoebe · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have been listening to Lisa DeLay's podcast Spark My Muse for some time now, and was thrilled to serve on her launch team for this wonderful book. It's a beautiful perspective on understanding the inner life and all its mysteries, informed by the wisdom of the Desert Fathers, Eastern Christianity, contemplative practices and Black theology. I love the metaphor of the "wild land," "flyover country," and changes in the climate as they all relate to our inner lives and core wounds. I also appreciated how Lisa explains some aspects of Western Christianity that have led to spiritual malformation, and how some Eastern Christian aspects correct that, especially when it comes to how faith is embodied. My favorite chapter is the one summarizing Evagrius of Pontus, as well as the chapter where Lisa shares some of the traumas she has experienced in her own life. This book is beautifully written and I will be returning to it and recommending it.

[Jennifer Layte · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wild Land is a beautiful and sensitive entry point to contemplative practice and faith. I’ve been working in this arena for a while now, and it was a great reinforcement as well as an expansion on things I’ve learned and am still learning. Notably, I’ve been looking for some grounded examples of these ideas from more contemporary and diverse (for lack of a less overused term) people than I’ve been able to find prior to this, and Colón DeLay’s book highlights some excellent examples.

Personally, the chapters on internal “weather systems” and on “fire bogs” were particularly relevant to me at present and gave me some additional and/or new language and frameworks to help me navigate both dynamics for myself, as well as some additional tools for when I am assisting others. I highly recommend this book.

[Lindsay · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Spiritual formation happens through the practices that engage us more deeply with the essence of the Divine and what nurtures that relationship. …fully settling into a posture of stillness, solitude, and silence as an orientation can direct us toward tender affection.”

“One who is familiar with this terrain and who has learned to abide in it feels freer to be themselves. …they feel freer to liberate others by offering radical love and grace. Rather than putting expectations or timetables on others, those who know their own interior lives are able to accompany others on their unique relationships with and paths toward the Divine.”

This is such a lovely book and a fantastic read for anyone who is interested in learning more about contemplative practices! I’ve been looking for books on this topic written by BILPOC (Black, Indigenous, Latinx, and people of color) and appreciated DeLay’s perspective as a woman who is originally from Puerto Rico. She ends each chapter with a spiritual practice for readers to try, ideally in community with others.

She explains the importance of learning from marginalized communities and has a chapter about the history of ancient Christian spiritualities. It was illuminating to learn about how Christianity developed into two “noticeably different spiritual expressions” in the East versus in the West. This was helpful in my journey to understand how my faith has been shaped by my culture.

DeLay goes on to address various aspects of our inner worlds, including naming our wounds, befriending our fears, and dealing with trauma. I recently started reading The Body Keeps the Score, which pairs well with this.

Many books are available on contemplative life, but this one is special in the way it includes history, research, and insights of people from many different marginalized communities. I learned a lot from all of the historical and cultural context DeLay provided. This is an informative, rich read from a needed perspective!

[Brian Hohmeier · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm grateful for Colón Delay's contribution, in which she admirably pulls together ancient, BIPOC and neuroscientific voices in a thoughtfully developed articulation of the project of spiritual formation as functional healing. I wish that there were far more books like hers when there seem so many flyover primers on popular contemplative practices and restatements of contemporary contemplative perspectives without manifesting a sustained direction of thought. In a word, The Wild Land Within stands out.

Still, I can't help but feel like it's trying to accomplish too much, and the density with which it treats the several histories and frameworks it attempts to integrate make it difficult for me to recommend for my educational contexts. What she overviews of the theological tradition behind her approach is massively broad and simply can't be done excellently in a chapter without greater restraint; her overview of cultural contexts can only be tragically cursory; and what she overviews of Evagrius and the passions is fine but simply done elsewhere and perhaps not clearly integrated with the preceding framework she offers about core wounds. On the whole, I could have wished this project to exceed the sum of the parts that it assembles well enough but with glue emanating from the seams.

Do read this book, notwithstanding; do purchase it. Colón Delay is helping lead us to a better place in how we write and talk about spiritual formation in the Church, and it warrants us tuning ears in that direction.

[Susan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mixed bag of a book. It started off slow, got rich and then got weak again. Chapters 5, 6 and 7 were the best for me. But then perhaps some of this is just already in my wheelhouse. I did not like the reliance on Bessel van der Kolk for the part on trauma. Still, probably could be a good read for a church based study group.

[Marcia McLaughlin · Rating 4 out of 5]

For me, I found some new ideas. This book is an excellent introduction to spiritual practices. Good one for group discussion.

[Reba Richie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Deep Listening.

[Susan Wilson]

I couldn’t relate or get into this book at all. Didn’t even finish it.

[PottWab Regional Library]

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