My Book: LIFE IN REVIEW
My deconstruction story.
A community deconstruction story.
And maybe even, your deconstruction story.
All of these aspects (my own, my community, and others deconstruction) were forefront in my mind when I first set out to write this book in 2013. I had entered my doctoral studies to give me the environment and guidance to research, reflect, and write. And now five years later I’m launching the book.
My deconstruction story.
Simply put. Life is at times more beautiful than imagined but also more painful. I have found this to be true over and over again. As a result, over time, I realized that the box (my worldview, my belief system, my faith, etc.) I had forced things to fit into –was being broken down–unfolded and reshaped. My book is a story about my continued reshaping faith/outlook.
A community deconstruction story.
One of the most comforting and perplexing (the tension continues) aspects of my deconstruction is that I am not alone. Thankfully I have found a community of friends who come together around some of the very same undoing, Convergence Community. It wasn’t the plan, but it’s been a part of our language and shared experience almost from the beginning.
Keep our eyes open. Be vulnerable. Be gracious and listen.
My book is also a story of our shared deconstruction. The practices, the art, the words that have helped us along the way.
Your deconstruction story.
This is the most exciting part. My book isn’t just my story and the story of Convergence. But it also invites you, on almost every page, to reflect, consider, and write (or draw or listen or imagine). It is an interactive book, bidding you to be uncomfortable and explore your own deconstruction. It would be a great book to use with friends. It would also be a great book to take into solitude.
Carry with you.
The ultimate reason I wrote this was to tell a story that might help someone feel less alone in their doubts, less isolated in their struggle, and more heard in their most vulnerable state — when things seem to be falling apart.
I’ll leave you with the words that I have often gone back to along my continued deconstructing path . . .
“In fact, there is no way to ’return to the faith of your childhood,’ not really, not unless you’ve just woken from a decades-long and absolutely literal coma . . . it follows that if you believe at fifty what you believed at fifteen, then you have not lived — or have denied the reality of your life.”
Also check out Semper Introspiciens: my self-publishing / artwork / writing location of much of my own “convergence” of my design world and current faith/outlook/spirituality.
Some views of my book . . .
