Uncovering the Wisdom of the Heartmind: Shaking Down Seed and Other Stories of Ordinary Goodness

This is the most heart warming book I've ever read. Heart warming does not mean happy. But the tears I cried are because of how real and profound the vignettes are. The book creates entire universes out of seemingly simple acts. If the world could share Lin Jensen's heart we wouldn't be at war.

This book is really a tear-jerker. Don't read it if you are squeamish. The horrific tales of life on the turkey farm will make you a vegetarian for sure, and probably against capital punishment. I worked on a dairy farm one summer and know that farms are cruel places though the turkey stories were disgusting. One thing I really admired was how Jensen made me feel sympathy for his dying father. Actually, what really got me was the story of how his father, as a young man, tested a Percheron horse by taking him into deep water. The beautiful symbolism of this act is just breathtaking. It was the high point of the book. So all in all, the structure of the book -- its interweaving of three separate strands (the turkey farm, his father, his own life) -- plus the amazingly deep and profound content make this a stunning must-read book. But read it in private so you can cry your eyes out without anybody seeing you and wondering if you are psycho. You'll need lots of tissues to make it through this short tome!

Lin Jensen is an amazing author who keeps you reading through both tears and laughter. He speaks to the reader in simple terms, of simple events. These are events that most would easily pass by, but Lin Jensen leaves you no escape from their gritty reality. He never demands that you change because of his writing. Instead the situations he shows you leave you with no room to conscionably not be changed by them. I have read the book five times now, setting aside several others I had been "dying" to read. Twice, I have read it aloud to myself, which felt kinda silly at first. The only reason I stopped reading it was to lend it out.

Lin Jensen's book is not one you will want to rush through. It is a series of personal reflections on the ordinary events of life, rendered extraordinary by the author's flawlessly simple style, impeccable self-examination, compassion for human failing and eye for the magical hidden in the everyday. Handsomely designed and beautifully edited, you will want to give it to everyone you care about deeply.

I cannot do justice to this work, in attempting to review it. To anyone who cares about the earth, and to the creatures who inhabit it, including ourselves, this book is essential reading.