Books for the gray days and the beginning of spring…What Kind of Woman: Poems by Kate Baer
This collection of poems about the author's experience of being a woman— and all the baggage and beauty that comes with it— is absolutely stunning. I was particularly drawn to Part One of the collection because so much of it resonated with my own experience, but the whole book is a beautiful, poignant, and wryly humorous read.
If you want a sampling of her poetry (including some amazing blackout poetry made from hate-mail and spam), check out her Instagram page.
Decolonizing Wealth, Second Edition: Indigenous Wisdom to Heal Divides and Restore Balance by Edgar Villanueva
I was introduced to Villanueva, a member of the Lumbee Tribe in North Carolina, through an episode on the podcast Green Dreamer, titled "Money as Sacred Medicine." (I highly recommend giving that episode a listen!) His book was an expansion on the theme of why money is not inherently evil, even in a decolonized/indigenized setting, and how the philanthropy industry (and, to some extent, individuals) can embrace the concept of using money for the healing of the world rather than destruction.
It's part memoir and part workbook, exploring the problems with philanthropy and how remaking our relationship with money can bridge divides and give reparations to those who have suffered and labored for the majority of the wealth that has been built in this country. Although not directly geared toward individuals (focusing instead on his area of expertise, charities and foundations), there is a lot of food for thought to be gleaned here as we examine what our relationship to money can look like. His writing is beautiful and well worth the read.
Sacred Earth, Sacred Soul: Celtic Wisdom for Reawakening to What Our Souls Know and Healing the World by John Philip Newell
This year I'm making a conscious effort to try to reconnect with the Celtic spirituality that my ancestors observed, and picked up this book among several others as a resource for exploring that. It turned out to be a theological and philosophical history of Celtic thought as told through six historical (and, incidentally, Christian) figures that the author considers to embody six of the basic principles of Celtic spirituality.
Although my critical eye has some questions about his choices (why continually emphasize how important the Sacred Feminine is, but only have one of the six people be a woman?), at its heart this book was deeply good for my soul. It's a spirituality that looks for the Divine (or, in Christianese, the Incarnation) in everyone and everything, based on the assumption that God expresses Godself in the natural, the human, and the earthly.
Reading about the different ways that Christians have chosen to follow God throughout the millennia— and how these ways often directly contradict imperialism and conquest— is really important to me right now. This book was full of fascinating history and theology, giving me language for what I've been feeling for a while now. If you're interesting in Celtic history or less-mainstream expressions of Christianity, this book is a great place to start.
Previously on What I've Been Reading:
All What I've Been Reading posts
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