When the official publication date of In the Sanctuary of Women rolled around on October 1, I was in one of my all-time favorite places: Asheville, North Carolina. I was traveling with my husband as he did some concerts around the Southeast. Although I don’t often get to travel with Gary when he’s performing, the combination of fortuitous timing and the fact that several of the concerts were being hosted by friends of mine, in places that I love, made the trip too compelling to miss.
To mark the book’s publication, Gary and my longtime friend Brenda gathered up a splendid group of folks for a post-concert celebration at one of Asheville’s congenial establishments. It was a perfect evening: the good company of friends both old and new; a chance to relax and take a breath in the wake of a year that, with events including getting married and finishing the book, has been tremendously and wondrously intense; and the easy conversation that being around a table so often evokes.
As we visited, I shared about how, when friends had a party to celebrate the publication of my first book, Sacred Journeys, I asked everyone at the party to sign the book as a way of blessing its beginning and providing a tangible reminder of that remarkable night. Fifteen years later, the signatures and words of blessing and good cheer with which those friends graced the book’s pages remain a tremendous gift. Sanctuary is something of a sequel to Sacred Journeys, and so it seemed fitting on that recent October night in Asheville to invite the folks around that table to do the same thing. Passing around a pen and a copy of my book, which had arrived—hot off the press—just before Gary and I hit the road, I asked them to do a book signing in reverse—to leave their mark as a remembrance of that night and a blessing for the book as it begins to make its way into the world.
During the following days, as we continued to travel, I invited other friends to share in the book signing. Already the book has become a treasure, with the names and powerful words that friends have left on its pages. Some of my favorite words are from children, including one who wrote “Good gob!” inside the front cover.
These pages will go with me as a reminder of the many people who have blessed the book in very tangible ways throughout its journey. From the book’s earliest days as scraps of ideas written on index cards, to its recent launch, and in the long stretch of writing in between—with both its wonders and its occasions of feeling quite daunted—friends have sustained both the writing and the writer with remarkable reminders of their care. Their encouragement and support have been a sanctuary indeed.
As we launch not only the book but also this companion website, I am grateful for all the blessings that have helped make this beginning possible, and for those who have offered these blessings. On this day, what blessings are you mindful of? Who has offered them to you, and how might you pass them along to others? Are you contemplating a beginning that could use a blessing? Where might you find this?
As you ponder this, here’s one of the blessings that I wrote for the book. May it grace you on your way.
Where there is no way,
no path, no road made plain,
may there be wise ones
who inspire you to see
where the way could begin.
Thank you for stopping by; your presence is a blessing upon this beginning. I pray that this site will offer a space of sanctuary and sustenance on your path. Peace to you.
Thanks, Jan,
I’m looking forward to walking this journey of blessings with you. Peace, blessings and all good things. You’re the best.
Donna Marie
Thank you, Sr. Donna Marie! I am grateful for your words and your blessing of this beginning! Peace to you.
Jan, just want you to know that I got your book last week and have only had a chance to peek inside, but it makes my heart alll aflutter with anticipation. Once I turn in my next manuscript on November 1st I look forward to diving in and sharing the word with others!
Many kind thanks, Christine! Congrats on the completion of your latest book—what a writerly year you have had! Thank you for the artful wisdom you offer. Blessings to you.
Congratulations Jan! I’ll pass the word.
Dear Jan,
Thank you for the depth of your words, and for the space for exploration found in both your new book and this website. I’m in the midst of a number of major life transitions, and have been sort of running over thoughts, feelings, and creative impulses in a desire to move beyond the sense of uncertainty that change brings. However, your book has allowed me to stop, to think, to reflect, and to remember that I know already how to manage things that feel challenging. To breathe, to lean into the feelings, to acknowledge, honor, and most of all *feel* them. And that we all need communities of support and challenge throughout our lives. I am excited about the journey ahead, and feel gently accompanied by your book, its blessings, and questions. I’m slowly reading through the first section now, and am trying to uncover my own unwritten, unspoken, hidden moments…and am grateful for the tangible support of hearing my questions echoed back across your pages.
Blessings,
Christina
Thank you again, Jan. Since Sacred Journeys, as well as your other work, have accompanied me for quite a long time on my path, I have felt a friendship and sisterhood through your words. Many life transitions in the last few years (retirement, moving to a whole new part of the country, leaving life-long friends) have made for lonely times. Now that I am connecting with women in my new community, a group creating sacred space together, we look forward to using your new book as a gathering place. Your words and art are true gifts and blessings.
Jan,
I have all of your books and have always felt a kinship with you as I’d turn to them through the seasons. I was so excited when this latest volume was released and ordered it right away. You have hit the mark again! My only criticism is that your new book includes so little of your beautiful artwork. Thank you for this latest offering. I look forward to sharing it with my Prayer Circle.
Jan,
Your writing is like an oasis in a desert; it has a powerfully evocative way of drawing me closer to God, and to myself. I am journeying through the Book of Eve, sometimes having to restrain myself from wanting to run through it, I am so thirsty.
I have long thought there is more to the story than the dominant understanding, and although I have spent time (and papers and sermons, etc.) looking at different ways of understanding the story, and how it may affect how we look at God and how God looks at us, you provide space for me to go even deeper on that path. When you give us permission to look at Eve’s desire as a good thing, my first question was, ‘Why would God not want us to be wise?’ Why would God not want us to be able to distinguish good from evil? It seems that much of the Christian life, the faithful life is choosing good, doing good, and doing no harm, no evil, fleeing from evil. I appreciate how your writing provokes, evokes, deeper reflection.
Thank you for a wonderfully gracious sanctuary that offers a welcome and the space to be ourselves, with one another and with God.
Reading the comment from M. Rust (Why would God not want us to be wise?) was so affirming! Since childhood I have carried that question when hearing this story. In this day and time, seeking wisdom and discernment seems more important than ever!
Dear Jan,
I bought your book as soon as it was available to order! I am reading it slowly, slowly, slowly, so it will last a long time. But then again, I tend to read your books over and over again throughout the year.
I just appreciate your writing so very much. Thank you! I have recommended all of your books to my friends who seek to refine and clarify their own sense of spirituality, always through a prism of seeking the Divine in every aspect of their lives.
Many blessings to you,
Kate