There comes a time when all of the pieces literally fall into place and our past comes face to face with our here and now, present day reality. Our woundings and our wonder become one. Such is one of the premises of Caren Goldman’s latest creation called Restoring Life’s Missing Pieces: The Spiritual Power of Remembering & Reuniting with People, Places, Things & Self which was published by SkyLight Paths.
I read the book under the covers on a rare October snow day, during which I was immersed in memory of my mother in whose physical presence I was a year ago this weekend. Tears and goosebumps of recognition as I pored through the pages of this book that is part academic and well researched and even more, a trip down the author’s own memory lane. Sometimes it ain’t pretty, but she claims it as her own. A true survivor with a resilient spirit, Goldman beckons the reader to come along and helpless to resist, this reader did just that. She moves from harsh relationships; a legacy from her family of origin, to healing with her own children and kindred spirit husband Ted whom she met on an Outward Bound course. Being an Outward Bound grad myself, I know the power of stripping away layers of fear and self imposed limitation and celebrating our own ability to triumph over them.
Re-union takes many forms, as Goldman points out over and over in this book; with people from our past who are living their lives sometimes parallel to ours with whose path we cross at the seemingly appointed time, to ghosts from our past who are no longer in body, but still embody our deepest desires and fearsome gremlins. Sometimes re-union is with a spiritual practice, sometimes with the perceived lost versions of ourselves.
Poems and poignant quotes are sprinkled throughout including one of my favorite, called Love After Love, by Derek Walcott
| The time will come when, with elation you will greet yourself arriving at your own door, in your own mirror and each will smile at the other’s welcome,and say, sit here. Eat. You will love again the stranger who was your self. Give wine. Give bread. Give back your heart to itself, to the stranger who has loved youall your life, whom you ignored for another, who knows you by heart. Take down the love lettersfrom the bookshelf,the photographs, the desperate notes, peel your own image from the mirror. Sit. Feast on your life. |
At the end of each chapter are clever and put -into -practice- right- away exercises that guide the reader to go deeper into the concepts previously explored. She opens and closes the book with the question: “Who do I say I am?” May the answer delight you.
http://www.skylightpaths.com/page/product/978-1-59473-295-9 to order the book
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