So yesterday my book finally arrived, the book I won in a little contest Vanessa Shields ran on her blog a couple of weeks ago. Vanessa is a dear friend and something of a scamp and she addressed the package to “The Fabulous Penny-Anne Beaudoin” – which accounted for my postman staring me up and down yesterday with a look that said, “Don’t know what all the fuss is about.” (My bathrobe might have been working against me there.)
Anyhoo, I anxiously tore into the envelope to get my first glimpse of Writing Down the Bones: Freeing the Writer Within by Natalie Goldberg, and I discovered that Natalie, in addition to writing ten books, has also practiced Zen meditation for over 30 years. In fact, this book is all about how to make writing your meditative practice. Fascinating, n’est pas? All the more so since the other book I’m reading right now (and loving), Rilke’s Book of Hours was co-translated by Joanna Macy, a Buddhist scholar and meditative practitioner.
Then, as I flipped through Writing Down the Bones, out fell a little pamphlet advertising the other books available from this same publisher (Shambala) and what should I see but the lovely face of the Magdalene which graces the cover of Cynthia Bourgeault’s book, The Meaning of Mary Magdalene, the book and author I referred to in my very last post! To top it all off, Cynthia is an instructor and practitioner of meditative prayer at the Contemplative Society in BC.
And around and around we go…
