Growing into God

Rating:
Summary: A wonderful, profound collection of spirtual insight.
Review: Unique, alive, pulsating and quiet. A wonderful, inspiring read. Highly Recommended.

Edwina Gateley has the unique ability to hear, in her silence, the resonance of God. She hears the same way that Stradivarius, knew perfection when he heard it. In this book of poetry, she sings her ballad "Growing into God" in such a melodic way that you will nod, affirmatively, with her canter. By the end of the book she brings the presence of God almost within touch.

What makes her poetry both timeless and infinite is her lonely, brave, sojourn - a lifetime of seeking. Her spiritual pilgrimage took her to places and spaces that few have known. She says, "My journey with God was full of ups and downs, a roller coaster, touching heights of love and joy, and depths of despair and anger." She goes on to say, "Betrayal, insecurity and loss are all part of the deepening process of faith by which we come."

I needed, and used, "Growing into God" while I was on a self-imposed exile from first world modernity and if possible, myself. For six weeks I retreated to the high Peruvian Andes. Often the experiences she told of in "Growing in God" mirrored my own. I found warmth and reassurance in Edwina Gateley's insights and her tapestry of words. Poems such as: Silence, Faith, Fall, Listen, Vision, Stirring, Sitting, Spaces, Farewell, Journey, Reunion and Deeply Grateful affirmed that I am not alone. My favorite, if it is possible to have just one, is her classic poem, "Loss." I will quote a part of it.

Loss

"I do not know you, God.
I thought I did -
your attitudes were listed long
in my Divine inventory....

One day
a grayness fell upon my world,
like a shroud,
choking my hymns and prayers.

Thought I called on you,
there was no answer,
no cloud by day nor fire by night,
only a terrible silence
screaming your absence -
leaving me,
not knowing,
my deep, deep faith
disintegrating
floating away like ashes
on a night breeze,
dissipating in the darkness,
leaving me all hollowed out."

"Growing in God" is for all of those believers who no longer feel close to the God they once danced with. "Growing in God" is for those, who in younger years, were confident in their faith; who would, without hesitation, sonorously tell other, invited or not, how they too could believe. Now, years later, their faith is only whispered and their words couched in relativity.

"Growing in God" is for all those who, like Edwina Gateley, dare to believe that God is still there, seeking to reconnect and renew.

"My dance was lost
to pilgrimage.
But your dance
never ceased, God.
Still you circled waiting -
to play and whisper
once again."

Highly Recommended

Rating:
Summary: A wonderful, profound collection of spirtual insight.
Review: Unique, alive, pulsating and quiet. A wonderful, inspiring read. Highly Recommended.

Edwina Gateley has the unique ability to hear, in her silence, the resonance of God. She hears the same way that Stradivarius, knew perfection when he heard it. In this book of poetry, she sings her ballad "Growing into God" in such a melodic way that you will nod, affirmatively, with her canter. By the end of the book she brings the presence of God almost within touch.

What makes her poetry both timeless and infinite is her lonely, brave, sojourn - a lifetime of seeking. Her spiritual pilgrimage took her to places and spaces that few have known. She says, "My journey with God was full of ups and downs, a roller coaster, touching heights of love and joy, and depths of despair and anger." She goes on to say, "Betrayal, insecurity and loss are all part of the deepening process of faith by which we come."

I needed, and used, "Growing into God" while I was on a self-imposed exile from first world modernity and if possible, myself. For six weeks I retreated to the high Peruvian Andes. Often the experiences she told of in "Growing in God" mirrored my own. I found warmth and reassurance in Edwina Gateley's insights and her tapestry of words. Poems such as: Silence, Faith, Fall, Listen, Vision, Stirring, Sitting, Spaces, Farewell, Journey, Reunion and Deeply Grateful affirmed that I am not alone. My favorite, if it is possible to have just one, is her classic poem, "Loss." I will quote a part of it.

Loss

"I do not know you, God.
I thought I did -
your attitudes were listed long
in my Divine inventory....

One day
a grayness fell upon my world,
like a shroud,
choking my hymns and prayers.

Thought I called on you,
there was no answer,
no cloud by day nor fire by night,
only a terrible silence
screaming your absence -
leaving me,
not knowing,
my deep, deep faith
disintegrating
floating away like ashes
on a night breeze,
dissipating in the darkness,
leaving me all hollowed out."

"Growing in God" is for all of those believers who no longer feel close to the God they once danced with. "Growing in God" is for those, who in younger years, were confident in their faith; who would, without hesitation, sonorously tell other, invited or not, how they too could believe. Now, years later, their faith is only whispered and their words couched in relativity.

"Growing in God" is for all those who, like Edwina Gateley, dare to believe that God is still there, seeking to reconnect and renew.

"My dance was lost
to pilgrimage.
But your dance
never ceased, God.
Still you circled waiting -
to play and whisper
once again."

Highly Recommended