Book excerpt: Lessons of Personal Pilgrimage and Change How can we better take in each moment of our lives? How can we be more responsive and open to the here and now? These questions are at the heart of our spiritual quests and personal pilgrimages. In this book the author shares inner and outer discoveries that brought her closer to herself and to the simplicity, subtlety and everydayness of her life. Her stories-as far ranging as enjoying tea with a friend to visiting mysterious Black Madonna icons in Europe-remind us to pay attention not only to the more dramatic or sensational events of our lives but to those simpler moments of connectedness and responsiveness that bring us into our true self. This memoir is filled with stories that are inner markers for personal evolution and change, particularly in the quest for the powers of the feminine. The author's anecdotes touch us all, reminding us that without our stories we might each miss the purpose and meaning of our lives. There are insights in these pages for every reader, lessons for finding the voice of our own quiet wisdom. -From the Foreword by Hal Zina Bennett