This morning, I begin a series of reflections on Mary Pipher’s book, published on June 4th: The Green Boat: Reviving Ourselves in Our Capsized Culture. As Pipher shares in the Introduction, she started writing in the summer of 2010 and went through many struggles of the soul as she worked to bring this book into being. The book, which came out in paperback, is a treasure-trove of wisdom for all of us who seek to live centered, engaged, and happy lives even as we face a convergence of crises in our world culture.

Pipher tells us she started writing because “I sensed that individuals were struggling to deal with cultural problems. They felt alone, hopeless, and uniquely damaged and they didn’t realize that almost all of us felt that way.”

In The Green Boat, she explores a process that helps us “to be present and focused, to stay calm and balanced, and to attend to the world around us with great love.” As Pipher shows, one thing that helps us tremendously in this process is connecting with each other and knowing we are on this journey together.

As we step forward in new ways to work on our world’s problems, may we give thanks for each other’s presence and courage. Each of us brings to this gathering distinctive and irreplaceable gifts. As Pipher reminds us, borrowing the words of Presbyterian minister and author Frederick Buechner, “God calls you to the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet."

The quotations above are from p. 1-2, p.3, and p.139.