book: Praying Like a Woman

"So many kinds of awesome love" ~ Praying Like a Woman, by Nicola Slee

Praying Like a Woman by Nicola Slee is, so far, the book that has most greatly challenged my faith and understanding of God, and my "self" as a spiritual, whole-being woman. Published in 2004, this is a deeply faithful, rawly personal, independent and incredibly brave book that resonates with images from the Bible, the natural world and from her own biography.

Nicola Slee's poetry and liturgical texts are raw, honest and sensual. She so beautifully conveys and connects to the place within herself (and myself) as a lover of God, the sensuality and, at times whole-being sexuality of searching, yearning, raw connection, trust, openness, stretching-to-tearing, healing and comfort.

What I am challenged by most—perhaps because it is so unfamiliar to hear in everyday church contexts, so far—is the speaking and naming of women, women's experiences, and woman-rooted images of God, as opposed to "feminine" understandings. Phrasing it like this, I am sure you can appreciate the difference. Slee has shared here the incredible both/and of power, strength, enduring-ness, realness, vulnerability, honesty, bravery and wisdom of women, like a maiden-mother-crone all rolled into one... and then some.

What makes this book ever-so-more precious to me, is that it is the only book I could afford to buy when I backpacked to the island of Iona, in Scotland, when I was in my mid-twenties. Now, approaching forty, this book continues to shock, push and expand me. I am deeply grateful for these writings, and hope you may one day have a chance to nestle into a red tent and explore this book yourself. ~ Martha Merry

With others: a statement of interdependence

I do not stand alone

but with others to support me

I will stand my ground.

I do not see the way

but with others to walk it with me

I can make a path.

I do not possess the truth

but with others to witness to what they know

I will be able to discern what is right.

I cannot master all skills

but with others who will lend their accomplishments

I can do enough.

I cannot carry every burden

but with others to share it

I may bear my own load.

I cannot meet all needs

but with others to nourish and replenish me

I will be able to give enough.

I do not have limitless free choice

but with others to consult

I will make my own choices gladly.

I will not always be consistent

but with other to laugh with me

I will regain my equanimity.

I am not invincible

but with others to reach out a hand

I may learn from my mistakes and start again.

I cannot be perfect

but with others to make up the shortfall of my imperfections

I can be content to be good enough.

~ by Nicole Slee, from "Praying Like a Woman"