Another Sacred Text

Sacred texts hold great meaning and love for me.

I am always grateful when I happen upon one.

I am just learning to appreciate and connect to the Bible, for example.

I recognize other sacred texts including fiction, nonfiction, music, poetry and movies.

By sacred I mean a work that lives over time and inspires and reveals universal truths that resonate with the heart. A text which you can go back to over and over again and experience new truths that you missed the first time around.

Most of the texts I identify as sacred include powerful stories of redemption, forgiveness, love and courage. Among my favorites are the movies "Guess Whose Coming To Dinner?" and "Tsotsi," the novel "The Color Purple," the nonfiction book, "Left To Tell: Discovering God Amidst the Rwandan Holocaust," the song, "Something Beautiful" and a poem that came to me in February while shoveling snow that I named "Still Inside."

I always seem to find a sacred text just when I need it. The last time this happened was July 2007. I discovered the book, "Surrender to Love: Discovering The Heart of Christian Spirituality" on my bookshelf unread. I don't remember when I bought it but I pulled it off the shelf and spent two solid days with it and two of those hours were in communion with God. The experience was so powerful that I called a friend to share it with her and later sent her the book.

It happened again this evening. I reached for a book on the shelf and another title leaped out at me: "All About Love: New Visions" by bell hooks.

The introduction, "Grace: Touched By Love," starts with this quote by Jack Kornfield:

"It is possible to speak with our heart directly. Most ancient cultures know this. We can actually converse with our heart as if it were a good friend. In modern life we have become so busy with our daily affairs and thoughts that we have lost this essential art of taking time to converse with our heart."

This is so exciting. Instead of cursing my heart for what and whom it loves, I shall learn again how to surrender to what and whom I love and befriend my heart over and over again.

What sacred texts do you enjoy?