Melannie Svoboda, the former Provincial of the Sisters of Notre Dame of Chardon, Ohio, is a master practitioner of the art of everyday spirituality. In this collection of beautifully written essays, she praises the miracles and epiphanies of the natural world. Each chapter is spiced with a thought-piece quotation, a question or two, a Scriptural passage, and a prayer to carry as a companion through the day. Svoboda challenges us to rejoice in the bounties and wonders of the gift of creation and hopes that reading these essays will spur readers to do what they can to preserve the good Earth for future generations.
We love trees and are so happy that the author begins with a tribute to a large white ash that grew on the Ohio farm where she was raised. Svoboda recalls it as a playground and "the silent sentinel of our childhood." The quote that opens the essay is from Carl Jung who said, "Sometimes a tree tells you more than you can read in books." We agree and so does Svoboda who thanks this nurturing tree for all it did for her.
In another piece, the author praises the art of beholding as a prayerful attentiveness to something. Throughout this gracious book, she tutors us in this spiritual practice.
The human propensity to label certain creatures as admirable and nice and others as disgusting and bad goes against the practice of inclusion. Svoboda has written positive essays about snakes, owls, rhinos, spiders, warthogs, bats, cockroaches, and pigeons. She affirms one of her thought-piece quotations by F. Lynne Bachleda which speaks to this high regard for the diversity of God's creation: "There are voiceless insights to be gleaned from the species that surround us if only we would stop and be with them."
More than 1,600 years ago, St. Augustine wrote: "If you have an eye for it, the world itself is a sacrament." On these pages, Svoboda shows how endlessly creativity and the grace of God shine through water, mountains, bees, giraffes, the sun, soil, snowflakes, horses, deer, flowers, and stars. Walk in wonder. Practice the art of long looking. Don't exclude any animal from your heart. Lavish your love and praise on creation's beauties. Slow down and savor God's presence in nature.
