Fabiana Fondevila is an author, storyteller, ritual maker, activist, and teacher from Buenos Aires, Argentina. Two of our favorite spiritual masters -- Thomas Moore and Brother David Steindl-Rast -- have given rave reviews for this resource on wonder. We agree with them.
Fondevila organizes this cornucopia of spiritual practices around a map of the spiritual journey with stops in the Jungle, the Garden, the River, the Mountaintop, the Swamp, the Village, the Fire, the Lighthouse, and the Ocean. In these places, we are invited to explore the wild; come alive to the report of the senses; let our imaginations flow in play, dreams, and mysteries; tell new stories through myths; embrace our shadows; deepen our relationships; make meaning through rites; and become amphibian beings by focusing our minds and opening our hearts.
Each section includes appropriate spiritual practices, from obvious ones like breath practices, writing morning pages, and mindful walking, to things less known as practices but certainly ones in our understanding of everyday spirituality, like a daily smell workout, making a nettle tonic, reading poetry aloud, or ritualizing a conflict. In the chapter on the Ocean, there are practices for many of the qualities of heart and mind heart qualities in S&P's Alphabet of Spiritual Literacy: awe (wonder), gratitude, joy, compassion, forgiveness, and love.
On top of all this, there are wonderful quotes from a wide variety of sources that can act as catalysts to your wonder. Here are two of them:
A quote to take to heart:
"Ceremonies are the way we remember to remember."
-- Robin Wall Kimmerer, biologist
A poem by Diane Ackerman:
School Prayer
"In the name of the sun and its mirrors
and the day that embraces it
and the cloud veils drawn over it
and the uttermost night
and the male and female
and the plants bursting with seed
and the crowning seasons
of the fireflies and the apple,
I will honor all of life
-- wherever and in whatever form
it may dwell -- on Earth my home,
and in the mansions of the stars."
