A Sabbath Life: One Woman's Search for Wholeness

Just as Dorothy didn't need to travel to Oz, author Kathleen Hirsch came to discover that life's greatest meaning could be found in her own backyard. A Sabbath Life offers a glimpse into the personal journal of an achievement-oriented, 40-year-old woman as she commits herself to creativity, motherhood, and the daily acts of building a holistic home. Although the journal-style prose seems detached at times, many of Hirsch's insights will resonate with women trying to find spiritual meaning in this postfeminist era. She often writes as if she were having a conversation with all women. "If a physical practice like gardening anchors us, it also taps a level of psychic life that many of us haven't experienced for years," writes Hirsch. "Physical work reawakens a delight in the sensual world, in the creative--its colors, movements, and makings. For a woman, these impulses are sources of deep spiritual nourishment." This is an important and stimulating conversation for any woman who considers herself a feminist, but who also values the spiritual blessings of hearth and family. --Gail Hudson