Diane Mills Deepening Engagement and Conversation the Sacred Art
The
Calorie-free
of God's
Shadow
Waking upwards is a lifetime try...
The Light of God'due south Shadow reminds the states through bawdy, vulnerable and humorous musings, stories, and poetry that waking up is a lifetime endeavor. Psychotherapist and spiritual director Jinks Hoffmann encourages us to heed for the divine daily call to wholeness—in our relationships and piece of work, our joys and dreams, our messes and triumphs, our losses and grief. We accompany Jinks on her journeying through radiant and night shadow, and nosotros acquire with her from the wisdom of her teachers. We grow in understanding— and in our bodies, hearts and souls—that when we welcome our vulnerability and strength, we heighten our humanity and heal our souls. By becoming kinder and more than compassionate with ourselves and with one some other nosotros go on waking up and we bring healing to the world.
"Her stories and poems remind usa that the Divine is meeting united states in and through it all. For both those who back-trail and seek accompaniment, we volition find inside these pages a manus reaching out to us. The manus of a sage with wide open eyes, delicately attuned ears, an ever-expanding center, and
both feet on the ground."
—Diane M. Millis,
author of Re-Creating a Life, Deepening Appointment, and Conversation-the Sacred Art
About the Writer
Jennifer (Jinks) Hoffmann, poetry editor for Spiritual Directors International, was born in South Africa but has lived in Canada since 1966. Originally a Speech Therapist, Jinks is now a Spiritual Director and Psychotherapist. Jinks has had a book of poetry published (Information technology's All God, Anyway) and has had many poems published in books, journals and on-line. A devotee of waking up for over twoscore years, Jinks reads, writes, walks, works with her dreams, and pays attention to her daily messes and triumphs—ever in search of Mystery, all the while knowing that Mystery is searching for her.
Excerpts
Enter my room with me and your ain inner sanctum, where, naked and vulnerable in our authenticity, we tin can speak from within-not near-our lives. When we enquire for moment-to-moment guidance from the Smashing Creator we learn more about ways to awaken, to glimpse the unity. Now, with more than religion in entering the dark, nosotros receive and comprehend the calorie-free of God'due south darkness. Hither we discover harsh loneliness, the cruelty of nature, the bitter entanglements of human relationships, the common cold abyss of grief, mystery that tin can terrify. We too find unspeakable beauty, the blaze of love and community, the uplift in awe, creativity, and the Breath of Life on our cheeks. We find the courage to love, to love more than, to allow the light of God'south Shadow to polish through us.
Going in and down, feeling the pain, staying with ourselves with soft bellies and open hearts, both redeems united states of america and brings united states of america closer to the Holy One. In the fourth dimension of COVID-19, some are saying, "Focus on the positive" or "Become over information technology. This is your life now." "Getting over stuff" does not work for me. I trust that grief is sacred and needs witness. Allowing hurting to run its course is holy piece of work.
One of Jung'southward fine teachings was that long-term relationships are splendid—and often challenging—containers for transformation. Psychological and spiritual change may occur when anyone in a partnership—or in whatever family or other social system—begins to awaken in some fashion. When just one person begins to modify, it is almost inevitable that the whole social organisation volition exist stretched, and more consciousness for all may be the upshot.
At times, we sleepwalk through life. It may be hard to stay awake to the enormousness of the moment, except very briefly. Perhaps there is no brighter light simply that which emerges from darkness. The more we awaken, the more we see how the whole world tin can shine, fifty-fifty in times of heartbreak. When nosotros are openhearted with the reality of life's darkness and our own beloved imperfect psyches, we may be more than able to experience the honey that underlies all existence.
There may be moments when, stalking our finitude, we become simultaneously aware of the souvenir and the fragility of loving. It is hard not to abscond at these times, for the searing meeting with another when nosotros dearest from the edge of our skin tin can almost hurt. Open, vulnerable, in the field of love, we know that love and loss are inextricably entwined. In these moments we may feel the sacred. There is no prophylactic once you agree easily with your God-given dearest teachers. If we love
unequivocally, our hearts will be broken open—more than in one case. The elemental and the concrete, the hidden and the revealed conjoin in rare moments. An everyday experience, like watching a child concentrate on creating a LEGO castle, becomes suspended in time, yet as
immediate equally a line in the palm of your hand—everything shimmering and humming. How practice we bear such love?
Testimonials
"One rarely encounters a Bat Bayit shel Mala, a true "Familiar of Heaven's Household." However, in The Lite of God's Shadow, Jennifer (Jinks) Hoffmann offers us a moving introduction to the faces of her Divine Intimate: The Love, The Boss, The Nifty Creator, The Holy, the Breath of Life on our cheeks. Drawing upon gimmicky Kabbalah, Psychology and her long personal and professional experience, Jinks sacredly and lovingly illumines the corners wherein our shmutz (psychospiritual "gunk") lies, the depths of disease, loss and feeling lost and the possibility of solace and partial redemption in the here and now. Savor her poetry and prose equally you lot "allow the light of God'south shadow to shine" though you."
Rabbi Howard Avruhm Addision, PhD
Associate Professor for Instruction, Temple University, Doctoral Studies Director in Jewish Spirituality, Graduate Theological Foundation, Co-editor of Jewish Spiritual Management (Jewish Lights)
Jinks Hoffman sparkles. She radiates. Her impish wisdom, warm embrace of the full and fleeting take a chance of the human being status, her childlike wonder and passionate devotion to both the unknowable Holy 1 and the holiness that lives and breathes between and among usa, melt my heart. This drove of musings on mystical truths, parenting grown children and navigating life and decease are essential for any spiritual manager dedicated to jubilant the holy humanity of themselves and everyone they companion.
MIRABAI STARR
writer of God of Love and Wild Mercy
"Reviewers sometimes write that they couldn't put a book downward as if that's the greatest compliment. I had to put this exquisite book down, once again and once more, considering information technology shimmers with a holy radiance that tin but be absorbed a bit at a fourth dimension. It'southward the Real matter. Jinks Hoffmann is a woman who chooses and re-chooses Life in its infinite depth and breadth, complexity and simplicity, staggering heartbreak and exhilarating joy, ordinariness and extraordinariness, Holy Lite and Holy Dark and allows herself to be fatigued into deepening Mystery. She touches me as a human being and every bit a spiritual director who tends souls. In one place she writes of listening to a grandson opening a bit of his sacred story and experiencing God-tears and God goosebumps. That is my experience of reading her pithy, grounded, powerfully revealing, sacred poetry and prose. This volume is a treasure."
SANDRA LOMMASSON
Mentor & Spiritual Director, Founder of the Sacramento-based Bread of Life Middle, trainer of spiritual directors, soul-tender, author and celebrator of Life and Relationship in its wonderful, intimate, heartopening complexity
"Waking upwardly, therapist and spiritual director Jennifer (Jinks) Hoffmann tells united states of america, is her gig, her manner of making life as rich and purposeful as possible. Her astounding book— with its calorie-free and darkness, joy and pain, and a lot of terror and wonder, invites readers to wake up too. Using stories, poems, personal history, other peoples' history, varieties of religious feel, and the unsettling revelations of dreams, she speaks non from the pulpit just strolling right beside us, her arm tucked companionably into ours. Jinks brings to her elevated subject an enormous generosity of spirit, earthiness and humor, and her own special brand of irreverent reverence. And if she wants to call God "Beloved" or the "Dominate," if she wants to keep reminding us—and herself—that, for sure, "I'yard not driving the bus," we will heed, argue, larn, hash out and thoroughly enjoy the fruits of the lifelong quest of this fine author."
JUDITH VIORST
Writer of Necessary Losses, Alexander and the Horrible, Terrible, No Skilful, Very Bad Day, forty other books of prose and verse for children and adults, and four musical plays.
"This book is very timely, given the craziness nosotros seem to be living through. It is my cup of tea. Information technology grants space for the traditions to speak to i some other and hits upon a fundamental and healing part of the great tradition which needs reviving today — 'There be in God, some say, a deep just dazzling darkness.'"
ALAN JONES OBE
is an Episcopal priest and Dean Emeritus of Grace Cathedral in San Francisco. He is too an honorary canon of the Cathedral of Our Lady of Chartres. He is a prolific writer of books, articles, and editorial opinions.
"Reb Zalman Schachter-Shalomi told this story: ane of his children came to him to ask, 'Abba (Daddy), once y'all've awakened in the morning, can you wake upward some more than?' Wake up some more with Jennifer (Jinks) Hoffmann equally she invites the states into her "room" through her experiences every bit psychotherapist, mystic, and human beingness in the face of two years of despair and growth. Information technology took only 8 pages before my eyes filled with tears. It won't take y'all long to feel the intense desire to walk into your ain "room" to wake upwardly some more with a new soul friend.
RABBI PHYLLIS BERMAN
Mashpia (Spiritual Companion in the ALEPH Ordination Program and beyond), Meditator, Chanter, Swimmer, Baker, Savta, Midrash writer
"Jinks 'had me' in the commencement lines of the Prologue. She described her discovery of the "secret of life" simply to observe it insufficient and in need of more searching. Through verse, story-telling and deep vulnerable sharing of her life experiences we learn more than about her continued searching.What each paragraph does is to invite us to reflect and proceed our own searching. This is a book to proceed on your nightstand and read over again and again."
LUCY ABBOTT TUCKER
Former manager of the Establish for Spiritual Leadership, Chicago and original member of Spiritual Directors International
"If you are looking for a guidebook to following your soul in these unprecedented times of crunch as well as in the ordinary moments of your daily life, look no further. Everything we experience—from COVID-19 to a neighbor walking their Great Dane—has something to teach us and the potential to awaken us. Jennifer (Jinks) Hoffmann speaks from within, rather than almost, her experiences of darkness, defoliation, and pain as well as calorie-free, clarity, and condolement. Her stories and poems remind us that the Divine is meeting usa in and through information technology all. For both those who accompany and seek accompaniment, nosotros volition find within these pages a hand reaching out to the states. The hand of a sage with wide open eyes, delicately attuned ears, an e'er-expanding heart, and both feet on the ground. While Jinks won't prove you lot the way, she will remain at your side as y'all search for your ain."
Diane M. Millis, PhD
Author of Re-Creating a Life, Deepening Engagement, and Conversation—the Sacred Art
"My friend Jinks Hoffmann has written an exquisite, inspired volume of spiritual education, in prose and verse, related to the teachings of six of her favorite teachers. She draws courageously on the darkest times of her life, when ane can sometimes larn the most. Her wisdom is deep, loving and penetrating, both challenging and enticing. Every bit the reader, I wanted to walk this path along with her. I am eager to revisit this book in the coming years, to go along to gather its profound education for my own life."
AMY EILBERG
Spiritual Director, Peace and Justice Educator, Teacher of Mussar and author of From Enemy to Friend: Jewish Wisdom and the Pursuit of Peace
"This volume is greatly engaging and information technology uniquely opens our hearts and minds to embrace the light and shadow aspects of our selves so that nosotros become more fully human. We are gifted with ageless gems of wisdom gleaned from the writer'southward life experiences, insights from directees and inspirational poesy. Through the sacred bewilderment of laughter and tears, we slowly awaken to our higher self and begin to experience the mysterious glow of Presence."
IMAM JAMAL RAHMAN
Co-founder of Interfaith Community Sanctuary and author of Spiritual Gems of Islam
"The Light of God's Shadow does my heart practiced. With poetry and prose, Jinks Hoffmann writes undefended, inviting us to walk with her, savoring the bits and pieces of ordinary life, both the shadow and the low-cal, benefited by her (positive) obsession with "shmutz cleaning". The result? She creates windows and doorways to gratitude, and living this day with a whole middle, the permission to fall in dearest with God again."
REV. TERRY HERSHEY
is an author, humorist, inspirational speaker, dad, ordained minister, golf addict, and smitten by French wine. He is the author of This Is the Life: Mindfulness, Finding Grace, and the Power of the Present Moment, Soul Gardening, Sanctuary, and The Power of Break. He divides his time between designing sanctuary gardens and sharing his practice of mindfulness and savoring this life. He lives in Port Ludlow, Washington.
"Most of us know that on whatsoever given mean solar day, or any given stretch of our life, we are bumping our mode through white water rapids. Virtually of the states would rather skip the rapids, unless we've booked the trip and chosen the boat and hotel. Most of us know nosotros don't have that kind of control.In her wise and generous volume, The Light of God's Shadow, Jinks Hoffmann makes the radically counter- cultural assertion that being in the rapids is non bad news. She shares her experiences of the healing and growth that come only through navigating the white waters with faith, patience, and backbone. Sometimes barely hanging on, always embracing her vulnerabilities as well equally her strengths, the light and the shadow, she encourages u.s. to stay present with the turbulence rather than ignore or deny information technology. She invites usa to hold contradiction and paradox, to listen deeply for what nosotros are to learn in the upheaval. Lifting usa with hope, while keeping united states grounded in gritty truth, Jinks offers united states of america a window into a life supported by connection to God and commitment to self-reflection. I am uplifted by the view."
LAURA GOLDMAN
Teacher of Mussar and Jewish meditation, spiritual director, psychotherapist.
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