In At the Root of This
Longing Carol
Flinders writes –
“My feminism and my
spirituality have always been closely connected, laying claims on me at
the same level. I’d taken up meditation out of a driving and, yes, aching
need for self-knowledge and meaning. My feminism had arisen out of that
same well of feelings, and in many regards the life I’d chosen had
satisfied it.
“Part of
me, though – the part that never lost awareness of the attitudes that
demean women and girls so universally and systematically – was like a
muscle that was sore from continual strain and misuse. It was hot to the
touch. If after all these years it was still flaring up, then surely it
was time I attended to it. . .”
From the Publishers
“After living through the sixties and
seventies in a spiritual community of work and service where meditative
practices defined, nourished, and sustained her very being, Carol
Lee Flinders experienced an awakening. She heard the clamoring bells of
feminism and glimpsed its imminent clash with her spiritual practice.
“AT THE ROOT
OF THIS LONGING: Reconciling a Spiritual Hunger with a Feminist
Thirst is the memoir of her journey to understand what seemed to be
irreconcilable. What does spirituality look like when it coexists with
feminism’s sharp critical faculties? And what does feminism do when
it is steeped in spiritual perspectives?
“Author of the
critically acclaimed Enduring Grace and co-author of the best-selling
cookbook Laurel’s Kitchen, Carol Lee Flinders has written a
poignant and deeply moving memoir of her internal battle to find her way
as a woman and a genuine spiritual seeker. "I feel as though I am looking
at two distinct cultures, with two sets of values, for whom the same world
could well have two different meanings."
“In AT THE ROOT OF
THIS LONGING, Flinders identifies and explores four key points at which
the path of spirituality and feminism collide:
“Flinders finds
inspiration in the enrapturing metaphor of Draupadi – the beautiful,
competent, and wise princes-goddess who was known to be extremely devout
and proficient in the spiritual disciplines from the great Hindu epic the
Mahabharata – who fell into a meditative dance causing her sari to
endlessly unfurl as her aggressors attempted to harm her, to forge her
conciliatory path.
“AT THE ROOT OF THIS
LONGING is a fascinating chronicle of the "synchronicities" that Flinders
finds on her inner pilgrimage. What she discovers is that, like some of
the medieval women mystics such as Julian of Norwich and spiritual
teachers such as Gandhi, is that there is a well of strength, courage, and
creativity within that can be drawn from through spiritual practice. "We
must be capable of speaking from real depths. To be truly and effectively
open toward one another, women must find their way into a genuine, active
interior life. Through prayer and meditation practiced in disciplined,
systematic ways, women can ground themselves in the interior and exterior
life – spirit, mind, and body."
AT THE ROOT
OF THIS LONGING re-focuses feminism over and against its traditional
rejection of spirituality and finds its true strength as a resistance
movement based in sacred.
