Letter received in Brussels

"Hi Marylee, When I was 33 and trying to find some sense in a busy world, I bought a large piece of forest here in Nova Scotia and lived on it. My partner and I lived in tents for the first couple of summers, then built a cabin using hand tools only. We had no running water, no electricity, but a lot of good intentions. In the fifth year I lived in that small [space] (160 square foot) for an entire year and was transformed. I read An Accidental Monk in that cabin and loved it.

I have since written a novel, to be published in Feb. 2012, based partly on that experience. I would like to use a quote from your book as an epigraph for one of the chapters. It is this one: 'I could say it this way: my consent feels like leaving home; God's grace feels like coming home; the struggle to be faithful to a call feels like being outside in the weather.'

I loved that quote when I was outside in the weather, so to speak, and I love it now. In any event, thanks for the book you wrote and good luck with your blog and novel[Blacktime Song by Rosalie Wolfe]. With appreciation, Scott Fotheringham"

I wrote that book in the early seventies, a time of spiritual transformation for me. It sold several thousand copies, then it was decided to not reprint it. Print on demand days weren't here yet, so the small paperback has become more and more rare. I've seen it for sale for $240 and also for 19 cents! Thanks to Mindy Oja, the whole book in now on my blog, and can be read for free. It is photographed, so all the artwork is there too.

I named my blog after that book, not because of Catholicism, but because I am, ever since 1969, aware of a contemplative calling, if you will. Is there a calling within that box that says Seeking? Exploring? Investigating? Perhaps it was always my nature, but I experience it as a gift that was given. It means everything to me that I am allowed to be "at large" in relationship to my Father in heaven and on earth, and in the body of Jesus, His church.

The quote Scott is going to use is as fresh to me today as ever. I continue to spend a lot of time in the weather; I know it to be a true and human place. Scott's novel is titled All Else is Silence. I'll buy it!