The Dance of the Dolphin
Finding Prayer, Perspective and Meaning in the Stories of Our Lives
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- $10.99
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- $10.99
Publisher Description
We live in two seemingly incompatible worlds—rational and spiritual.
How can we keep our balance?
Like the dolphin who exists in both water and air, so must we learn to live and thrive in two conflicting worlds—the rational, material, everyday craziness of life versus the still, spiritual soulfulness of our deepest selves. Balancing the two—difficult as it often can be—is the key to our spiritual survival.
Through poignant stories, spiritual teaching and insights, Karyn Kedar shares with us the ways we can integrate the everyday—family, work, personal challenges—with our quest for deeper spiritual understanding. She helps us to decode the three “languages” we must learn to weave the seemingly ordinary and extraordinary together:
Prayer—The path through which our souls connect with the Divine. Perspective—How we define life’s twists and turns, and how our words and actions define the quality of our lives. Meaning—The quest to understand and make sense of all that seems incompatible.
In graceful ways, Kedar shows us that by realizing the connection between the ordinary and the awe-inspiring, we can synchronize our hearts with the ways of the world and live with joy, a sense of calm and greater purpose.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Kedar (God Whispers) breaks ground in the fertile field of Jewish inspirational literature with this collection of essays that navigate the crossings between the rational and spiritual worlds. Departing from the spate of how-to books on Judaism, Kedar, a rabbi, offers reflective and eloquent perspectives on how to find meaning in the tension between wondering and doing, questioning and acting. As the dolphin arches out of the water and into the air, then submerges again, so Kedar urges readers to dance between life's contradictions. To do so, she suggests three paths that can "synchronize the rhythm of our heart with the way of the world." These include prayer, which is the language of the spirit; perspective, which is the language of thought or the way we choose to see events; and meaning, the urge to understand and reconcile all that seems incompatible and to practice noticing the invisible. Kedar draws her stories from her own life as well as from folk and rabbinic tales, the prayer book and the land of Israel, weaving a Jewish tapestry with universal patterns that range from mystery and memory to meditation. Although Kedar encourages the "integration of all aspects of the self" to bring the "spine of being into alignment," her writing sometimes borders on the starry-eyed, blurring the divisions between these three paths and leaving the reader with a vision of balance that is easier to romanticize than to achieve.