Saturday, March 26, 2016

Book Review: Whispers in the Stillness


by Martina Lehane Sheehan



Martina Lehane Sheehan, in her book Whispers in the Stillness, walks us through the practice of mindfulness. Interweaving references from Christian and Buddhist teachings, she gently leads us inward. Sheehan is a woman who understands the richness and the challenge of being present. Not only is she a psychotherapist and retreat leader but she is a woman who does her work. Woven throughout her writing, she humbly shares her own stumblings, the times when she gets caught wandering in the wilderness of her own mind. I appreciate her honesty and willingness to reveal her humanness. This helps make the practice more accessible, more user friendly one might say. We get to experience, through her vulnerability, just how it is to forget and then pull ourselves back to being aware. This also makes the book easy to read. It is enough to try to be present each moment without having to struggle with complicated doctrines. Thus Whispers in the Stillness reveals Sheehan’s easy spirit and the simplicity of the practice itself.

Review by Rev. Ruth Barnhart, a staff minister at Center for Spiritual Living, Santa Rosa.

Whispers in the Stillness is available from Stepping Stones Books and Gifts.

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