“Imagine
breaking open a rough rock in a barren desert expecting more
of the same drab nothingness and discovering instead an ‘exquisite
inner treasure.’ Then imagine breaking your life open
and discovering the same. Renée Miller invites us to
such an adventure in Fertile Soil in a Barren Land.”
—The Reverend Canon Ernest L. Bennett, Diocese
of Central Florida "…thoughtful,
elegant…Miller uses her considerable literal desert
familiarity and knowledge to illuminate the soul's terrain,
traversing such concepts as silence, identity, darkness, belonging,
community, release and sacrifice. Readers can use Miller's
straightforward exercises to delve into the riches of a seemingly
lonely wasteland to replenish their souls. Desert aficionados
in particular will find spiritual oasis here."
—Publishers Weekly,
June 2005
“Both
lyrical and challenging, this book will draw you in to yearn
for the desert—not for romantic travel brochure landscapes,
but the real wilderness where we find and are found by God.”
—The Reverend Canon Stephen
Holmgren, Rector of Grace Church, St. Francisville,
Louisiana, and author of Ethics after Easter
“Renée Miller lures us into the desert to encounter
the unexpected and unsought within our own souls: toe-walking
coyote, spiny and water-hoarding cactus, crystalline and friendly
dark, the pain of solitude, and life-giving emptiness. All
conspire to show us God, working a most mysterious creation
in our deepest and driest places.”
—Katharine Jefferts Schori, Bishop
of Nevada
“Canon Renee is a wonderful spiritual guide. Her words
turn to song and lift us to the Presence we seek; in community,
in silence and in the desert, where the still small voice
of the Spirit gives us space and grace to confront our overstuffed
lives and to absorb the scent of God; to recover our identity
and move beyond the grave of busyness to connection with earth
and heaven. Lucky us to have this treasure of spiritual exercises,
biography, inspirational prose and insight—insight even
into the catastrophe that is 9/11. This book is about the
tried soul, the roadrunner and the coyote brought to Jesus-of-the-desert.”
—Richard Shimpfky
To
purchase a copy of FERTILE
SOIL IN A BARREN LAND visit
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