This Moment of Retreat: Listening to the Birch the Milkweed and the Healing Song in All That Is Now

This Moment of Retreat is a companion guide to spiritual growth and healing. Over the course of seven chapters readers are encouraged to retreat into the present moment to listen to the healing guidance that is being sung in the voices of Scripture prayer and meditation journaling poetry and song. Each chapter features a theme of healing and offers an opportunity for personal or group retreat through prose poetry prayer or reflection activities that help the reader claim beauty in the midst of the darkness that so often accompanies--and fuels--the growth of the soul. Readers will find soul-touching inspiration in the lyrics and links to original songs by author Heather Lee included in each chapter. While listening and singing along with these songs the teaching and healing work of their retreat moments will be deepened through music and voice. In a society that is so often governed by fear worry and shame this book discovers and embraces the beauty of the imperfect self the process of healing and the way-finding to life by encouraging spiritual depth presence listening and ongoing conversation with God. This book convinces me that this sister and I have much in common. I can learn a lot from her. In fact I have learned a lot from her. I benefit from her hard-earned wisdom. I am inspired by an eloquence that grew from her own healing. And you too are in for an experience of healing learning and inspiration. --from the foreword by Arthur Boers While reading This Moment of Retreat I knew the book would be a gift to use for devotions at meetings retreats or for small group discussions. I imagine taking a song a phrase or the questions at the end of each chapter to spark conversation. I picture a group wrestling with their own birch trees over the winter season. As a pastor much of my reading always has an eye for teaching and learning with others yet I can see This Moment of Retreat opening up spaces and blessings in my own devotional life. --Kimberly Knowle-Zeller pastor Christ and Trinity Lutheran Church Sedalia MO Heathers writing is like a vine twisting and tangling again and again and again. In the branches and attached songs birch trees milkweed plants and calling loons mix with Scripture and prayer and retreat and engagement. This Moment of Retreat is a personal journey to be sure. But Heather invites you to walk in her garden in hope that you too may find a mystic in yourself and like her learn to follow your own vulnerable voice. You may even find a voice that leads you back to blessed community. --David Dragseth pastor Lake Park Lutheran Church Milwaukee WI This book is so rich and I find myself whirling with the fullness of it. I want to spend time working with it--reflecting chewing digesting being challenged and nourished and held by it--slowly. For me each chapter has been an invitation to seek to listen deep inside and to find the ways in which God reaches out to me. --Dawn Zak retreat facilitator Milwaukee WI An excellent facilitation guide on growth and healing for small group retreats book discussions or self-guided reflection and contemplation. --Brian Stahlkopf licensed professional counselor Milwaukee WI Heather Lee is a lay leader in the world. She rests in her call to honor God and to encourage growth and healing in each moment through her roles as mother wife daughter sister teacher singer songwriter poet author friend servant and seeker. She participates in an ELCA Lutheran congregation a practicing yoga community the community of Benedictine Oblates at the Holy Wisdom Monastery and in the spiritual community of all creation.