Description
Book SynopsisIt can be difficult to create space for our spiritual lives in a world crowded with distractions. THE PEN AND THE BELL is about how to achieve mindfulness and creative fulfillment in spite of long to-do lists. It's about gaining access to our deeper selves in the workaday world and bringing forth this authentic self in our writing. With both meditative and writing exercises in each chapter, it will help you awaken your creative soul and find a more rewarding life. "This isn't a book - it's a beautiful, quiet path into the deep woods of contemplative practice through the medium of the written word. Yes, reading its chapters will delight you. Yes, listening to these two wise women talk quietly about their lives and their writing process is a sweet and effortless reading experience that will make you feel as if you are sitting across from them, a cu of tea in front of you, hearing the measure and lilt of their kindly, honest, voices. But the real crux of this book/path isn't their words - it's yours." -- Norman Fischer author Taking Our Places
Trade Review“The Pen and the Bell is a needed reminder that to be fully alive and alert is a prerequisite to writing well. Brenda Miller and Holly Hughes are the perfect guides for helping us all slow down and see the world around us. What a wise, warm, wonderful book!” —Dinty W. Moore, author of The Mindful Writer
“Strictly speaking, this isn't a book—it’s a beautiful, quiet path into the deep woods of contemplative practice through the medium of the written word.” —from the foreword by Norman Fischer, author of When You Greet Me I Bow: Notes and Reflections from a Life in Zen and Training in Compassion, among others
Table of ContentsForeword by Norman Fischer
Preface
Ways to Use This Book
Sitting Down and Waking Up
Details, Details, Details
Lectio Divina
Opening the Senses
Preparation Is Everything
Practice, Practice, Practice
Contemplation at Work
The Moments in Between
Spiritual Traditions
Eating as Contemplative Practice
On Gratitude
Travel as Contemplative Practice
Encounters with the Wild
Our Animal Companions
Dwelling in Our Bodies
Responding to Art
Allowing Emptiness
On Mortality
Befriending Solitude and Grief
Balancing Contemplation and Action
A Final Offering
