Margaret Silf is a writer, a retreat leader, and author of many books including At Sea with God. Indigenous peoples, Native Americans, and Taoists are among the groups that have a keen appreciation for the different energies and spiritual potentials of places. Silf has divided this book into sections on garden, mountain, seashore, forest, river, jungle, desert, cave, and night sky. These environments and locales are used to prompt thought about prayer and devotional life. She includes a Bible passage and a series of questions in each chapter.
Silf begins with an essay on "Garden" as a sacred space where the heart can be cultivated. Here people take care of the plants and give God the glory for creating such marvels. In a meditation on "Mountain" Silf describes how people use this place as spur to prayer and inspiration. The journey to the top of the Mountain can be seen as a metaphor for our spiritual journey. Walking on the beach near the ocean or sea enables us to sense the beauty of creation as we make "prayer strolls" throughout the day: "The seashore is a moving boundary between the predictability of dry land and the restless mystery of the ocean. To walk the seashore is to allow the mystery to touch the edges of our everyday world."
Silf says that we can pray like a river following our own course or we can drop all words and take in the stillness of the desert, a place where we must constantly be paying attention to where we are.
