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From Ocean to Desert: A Spiritual Memoir

by Janet Sunderland

A self-professed Seeker/Hermit, as well as Critic and Wise Woman/Crone, Janet Sunderland spent a lifetime trying to find healing, purpose, a spiritual community, and God. From Ocean to Desert recounts the part of her journey that began in Hawaii and ended in Kansas, with extended stays in Georgia and New Mexico, and short layovers in Washington, D.C. An intense and life-changing stay at a retreat center near Volcano, Hawaii, gave her space to examine the many dimensions of her life with a supportive, yet challenging, circle of healers, therapists, artists, and spiritual enthusiasts. Her next stop was Georgia, where she lived with her son's family and cared for her grandson while also taking classes and teaching at a nearby college. Yearning for more, she then moved to Santa Fe, New Mexico, eager to study at a university offering a program on Great Books. There her mind and spirit were stretched and strengthened by the best thinkers and writers of all time, and she at last found a spiritual community that brought her healing, a sense of purpose, and a deep understanding of God. Her next move, then as an ordained priest in the Order of Antioch and a married woman, was back to Kansas where her life had begun.

ART / General
RELIGION / Holidays / Christmas & Advent
POETRY / General

ISBN: 978-1-951651-61-9 (print; softcover)

LCCN: 2020949481

Released November 2020

92 pages

Author Biography

Prize-winning poet Judith Sornberger is the author of three other full-length poetry collections—I Call to You from Time (Wipf & Stock, 2019), Practicing the World (CavanKerry, 2018) and Open Heart (Calyx Books)—and five chapbooks. Her prose memoir, The Accidental Pilgrim: Finding God and His Mother in Tuscany, is from Shanti Arts. She is professor emerita of Mansfield University of Pennsylvania where she taught English and created the Women’s Studies Program. She lives on the side of a mountain outside Wellsboro, Pennsylvania, among deer, bears, and bobcats.

Endorsements

“Reading this concentrated gem of a book, one is triply gifted—with the poet’s words, the artists’ images, and the true spirit of the holidays. Sornberger captures the beauty and complexity of the season with such honesty, insight, and lyricism that it is like lighting one candle after another. Anyone who spends time within these radiant pages emerges blessed. A feast for the soul and a book of wisdom, this collection is the perfect present for everyone on your list.”
­—Alison Townsend, author of The Blue Dress and Persephone in America.

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