1. Sonorous Desert
What Deep Listening Taught Early Christian Monks—and What it Can Teach Us
Kim Haines-Eitzen • Princeton University Press
Most of us likely think of deserts as barren with no redeeming value. Not so for Kim Haines-Eitzen, who finds a rich soundscape there that promotes solitude. That gift of solitude, she says, explains why some of the earliest contemplative practitioners, the Desert Fathers, sought refuge there. Haines-Eitzen grew up in the Middle East and, from an early age, was taken with the power of the desert, both the simplicity of its landscape and the “sound of desert silence.”
When you sit quietly in a place with seemingly so little going on, you hear the sound of air and animal noises in a way that might escape notice when you’re in preoccupied mode. Haines-Eitzen points out that “we often forget to give sound the close attention it deserves… Sounds encircle us, reverberate within our bodies, emanate from above and below.”
“Paying attention to sound offers us an opportunity to come into our bodies, inhabit our place of being, and understand who we are.”
Kim Haines-Eitzen
This is not a religious book. It’s simply about how much we can hear if we listen deeply, “with the ear of the heart.” It asks us to consider learning from the early contemplatives’ appreciation for listening to something other than human-made noises and our internal monologue. “Paying attention to sound,” she writes, “offers us an opportunity to come into our bodies, inhabit our place of being, and understand who we are.”
Throughout the book, QR codes appear. Aiming a smartphone camera at them will lead you to recordings of desert soundscapes that are every bit as captivating as listening to someone talking about solitude and silence—in fact much more so. – BB
2. Surviving Storms
Finding the Strength to Meet Adversity
Mark Nepo • St. Martin’s Essentials
Prolific writer and philosopher Mark Nepo helps us reflect on where we’ve been, where we are, and how we want to grow toward the future and, yes, its inevitable storms. Through far-ranging prose (on the nature of geological storms, the healing process of “inner triage,” the social effects of reality TV), interspersed with poetry and writing/conversation prompts, Nepo explores how knowing ourselves deeply can strengthen us to stay resilient and connected to our hearts and to one another. “The heart’s process of renewal and connection is the oldest and most reliable resource we have,” he reflects. “Following the heart as our teacher leads to an inner exploration we each must map for ourselves.” –AT