On November 15th we will release Gunilla Norris’ newest offering, Sheltered in the Heart: Spirituality in Deep Friendship.
Gunilla Norris’ parents were world travelers in the Swedish diplomatic corps and so she grew up essentially in three places—Argentina, Sweden and the United States. As a child she was given a rich exposure to different languages and cultures. She received her B.A. from Sarah Lawrence College and her M.S. from Bridgeport University in the field of human development. She is a mother and a grandmother. She has been a psychotherapist in private practice for more than thirty years and has felt privileged to accompany many people on their journeys to growth and healing. Her special love has been teaching meditation and leading contemplative workshops of many kinds. As a writer Gunilla has published eleven children’s books, one book of poetry and six books on spirituality including: Being Home, Becoming Bread, Inviting Silence, A Mystic Garden and Simple Ways.
Sheltered in the Heart is now available to pre-order exclusively in our bookstore. And remember, like with all our titles, if you pre-order through us we will send your book a full two weeks before the official release! Visit Gunilla’s page in our store.»
In the weeks leading up to the release, we will be posting a few excerpts of Sheltered in the Heart. This first preview comes from Sorrows, in the section on Understanding.
Whenever we remember our joys we cannot help but remember our sorrows as well. They are tied together. When we remember the one, the other seems also to be pulled out of the past into present awareness. This is so because by its nature joy includes all that is not yet within its compass.
Inner joy unlike happiness is not dependent on circumstance. It is a condition of being—a profound acceptance of pathos. Could we dare to say that joy is not joy unless sorrow has found a home within it? That can change how we look upon our grief. Accepted it becomes the royal road to that transcendent place of knowing life as it really is—sweet, bitter and true. Sorrows refine us. Embracing them our souls grow. The dross is burned out of us when we submit to the fire. As the alloys—our preferences and insistences—melt away, we can begin to feel how everything, even dreadful things can carry meaning and forge us into wholeness.
Sharing one another’s sorrows is a tender aspect of deep friendship. We should not be so ready to be rid of our grief when it is the very path to the heart. Together we realize that sorrows fully accepted mark our faces. We seem to shine with wisdom when we are able to witness this in each other. We acknowledge a sense of wholeness, a realized strength in our bearing.