INTRODUCTION TO THE ESSAYS
Four Gardens of Reflection:
| The Arts | Community | Children | Nature |
"God has a purpose for your life," we often hear people say. We hear it most often when people seem a bit adrift, or sometimes when they are very much adrift, perhaps anxious and depressed and unable to seize the moment.
Sometimes we lack purpose because we have not sought it or choose not to face it. Choices can be difficult because they involve rejecting some options in favor of others, saying no to some things in order to make others possible. But choices are not always totally exclusive. People can seek to establish balance in their lives. They can allocate their personal time and talents in ways that let several choices enrich each other: family and career, work and leisure, teaching and learning, even faith and doubt. Sometimes we are stronger for testing the tensions between our choices.
In the Four Gardens of Reflection, I am introducing you to central priorities I have chosen—and that have chosen me. God may well have a purpose for me, but it is a complicated and multi-faceted mission that I have yet to understand fully. Through these essays, I invite you to consider the richness and diversity of your own life. What are your gardens of reflection?
Four Gardens of Reflection:
| The Arts | Community | Children | Nature |