The Best Spiritual Writing 1998

"I think, that we need to detach ourselves from fashions and fads, that we should work with one eye on the earth and the other on heaven, that we must return regularly to silence" (p. xiv), editor Philip Zaleski writes in the Preface to this collection in The Best Spiritual Writing series, which he introduced in 1998. Although his latest edition lacks many of the compelling voices of previous years--Natalie Goldberg, Anne Lamott, Barry Lopez, Annie Dillard, and Philip Levine, for instance--Zaleski once again provides his reader with an adventure for the soul.Based on his experience hearing the secrets of confession, Lorenzo Albacete, a Roman Catholic priest, observes that the "language of the inner life is a serene silence, a deep hurt, a boundless desire, and occasionally, a little laughter" (p. 3). In his "Sabbath" poem, Wendell Berry dreams "of a quiet man/ who explains nothing and defends nothing but only knows/ where the rarest wildflowers/ are blooming, and who goes/ where they are and stands still" (p. 16). In another memorable poem collected here, "Clear Night," Charles Wright wants "to be bruised by God" (p. 277), while gazing up at the stars. In his essay, "Bear Butte Diary," John Landretti introduces us to a shaman with an appreciation for coffee and cigarettes (p. 66). In perhaps the most moving essay here, "Stillbirth," Leah Kuncelik Lebec learns from the heart, through her seven-month-old stillborn baby, that God loves us all, "yes, loves us, all six billion--whatever--of us, teeming over the earth" (p. 104). Brian Doyle contemplates "grace" in "Grace Notes," and David James Duncan contemplates "strategic withdrawal" in his essay. While Thomas Moore examines the "in-between places" of transition that make life worth living (p. 184), Valerie Martin meditates upon Saint Francis, and Terry Tempest Williams ponders Saint Teresa in Spain, a place that looks much like her home in the American southwest: "Little excess. Nothing wasted" (p. 260). Joan D. Stamm considers "the way of flowers."In short, this 277-page collection will not disappoint those readers interested in experiencing spiritual perspectives that have one eye on "the dusty world" and the other on heaven.G. Merritt

Philip Zaleski has done a masterful job of seeking out and commending the work of some eighty writers who live for "making sentences," as Joseph Epstein confesses. And because they do, they tell with great beauty of the particular struggles and joys which have brought them along a spiritual path. Some of these writers make us comfortable, some disturb. The reading becomes an opportunity to accept the challenges of the particular life I have chosen. In doing that, I, too, see a blessing within the day Today! Your heart will be softer and your mind more open after exposure to these adventurers. Where other spiritual writers offer us helpings of chicken soup, here is spread the finest of feasts. Paella for the literate soul! (Even if you're nearer the North Pole or a Zen Community than you imagined.)