Peace is a goal for all spiritual people. It is an inner state of well-being and harmony. It is also an outer project of disarming our heart and being a reconciler in a violent, harsh, and belligerent world. In this parable, based in part on Stefan Zweig's The Legend of the Third Dove, Eliane Wilson has created an enchanting story with a theme that young and old alike will identify with — the universal yearning for serenity.
In a European mountain village, Stefan loves to listen to his grandfather's stories and to commune with his closest friend, a dove engraved on a piece of pear wood. Then one day, this friend is called away to the Mount of Olives and a Great Council of Doves. They are to search the world for the lost Dove of Peace. All those who have flown out of paintings, broken free of stained-glass windows, torn away from tapestries, and stolen out of manuscripts travel on special missions to the Holy Land, Greece, the American Great Plains, Japan, the isle of Iona, and Tibet.
The Lost Dove is studded with lyrical insights into the quest for peace from art, literature, mythology, mysticism, and religion. And the illustrations by Hans Erni are delightful.