Review Detail

It is so easy to lose your center when the chaos and pressures of modern living swirl about you. When your stress hormones go through the roof, call “time out” and pick up Kent Nerburn’s book, Ordinary Sacred. It is the perfect reminder of what really matters, and – hint – it is nothing material.

With incredible eloquence, his gentle words convey the preciousness to be found in ordinary moments “when the hidden beauty of life breaks into our everyday awareness like an unbidden shaft of light.” He shows the world as a mirror that helps open our eyes and hearts to the grace of our best reflection.

Kent’s simple stories are at once intensely personal and universal. Who hasn’t viewed a place or work of art seen in our youth through different eyes, realizing how much life has changed us. Who has not had our own troubles put into stark perspective by the overwhelming burdens of another?

We are invited to find the sacred messages awaiting us in the most unexpected places. From a lone kite flier in the desert to the communal grief of a Native American funeral, he weaves a rich and poignant tapestry of life observed and lessons earned. The vignettes he recounts from his life continue to glow in memory like embers that warm the spirit long after you’ve finished this little treasure of a volume. Oh, and you may want to keep a tissue handy.