Here are two book recommendations from Linda Courage.
The Middle Passage: From misery to meaning in midlife – James Hollis
Inner City Books, Toronto. 1993.
I picked this book up at a friend’s house and could not put it down – I’ve read it twice. For anyone familiar with Richard Rohr’s mantra about the first and second half of life, this book is likely to resonate, although it uses different language. It is about the need to grow up – to cast off the essentials of the first half of life in the second half of life – a painful but liberating shedding. “Inner City Books was founded in 1980 to promote the understanding and practical application of the work of C.J. Jung.”
A Simplified Life: A contemporary hermit’s experience of solitude and silence – Verena Schiller
Canterbury Press, London. 2010.
This book was found by a friend during a Llysfasi course to help prepare people accompanying others on their soul journey. I read it with interest to see if it resonated with my own ‘need for silence and isolation’. I understand that it is quite unusual for a nun from the Anglican tradition to follow a path of solitude – my roots are in that tradition too. Verena writes of her move to solitude and the practical details of life over many years – and her growing into deep belonging to the land to the extent that church attendance slipped away, at least for a while.
