03 Feb Devotion

‘Devotion’, a memoire by Dani Shapiro, an honest and vulnerable book, with languaging holding the truth and the difficult in retrospect thinking, so well. The words mirror the nostalgia , with all its regrets, love, fear and faith.

«I was longing for the moment i was in, even when i was in it».

I´m always on the lookout for something new to read, so I am happy to share with you a good book and a newfound author.  If what i´m reading is to dense of information, I continously read with a marker, and make notes on the side. And to be honest, that can be exhausting, so I really appreciate those authors who are able to write dancingly about the hardships of life, the dance of sukkha and dukkha, like Dani Shapiro.

Devotion is a good read. It´s real, and fresh as the authors shares her anxieties, wins and personal spirituality.  If you are interested in yoga (beyond fancy leotards that is), and mindfulness, spirituality and how it all blends in everyday life, this is the book for you. Merging in teachings of great contemporary teachers as Sylvia Bornstein, Stephen Cope, and Sharon Salzenberg, in familiar setting of retreats, at Kripalu, or her own yoga mat in her own house.

Dani shares moments of joy, and panic, where she was and what she felt when the two towers where hit, her relationship with her mother, her father, also in the years after his death, motherhood, and the anxieties of a mom having a child with severe illness, and her religion. Guiding us through her feelings about her religion, the estrangedness to its rituals and expressions, an her attempts of getting more intimate with it, at the sam time leaning on her personal journey of spirituality. She writes about her life turningpoints, smaller and bigger, with emphasis on arising insights, and the significant realizations that have moved her forward,

I love the discourse on how spirituality, or rather questions of existence can look like in someone’s life, simultaneously as religion. This books contextualize spirituality in so called householder life, a normal life without retreating away from society and family life, and shows a personal expression of spirituality.

Find your copy either at Audible (my new personal favourite, and bit more sustainable), or at Amazon for your hardcopy. Ps. This is not an ad. This is my personal recommendation to you. 

And with this, a very happy weekend to you!

Enjoy!