LAUNCHED!

It is done.

On Friday, May 8, 2009, at 7 PM, I appeared at the venerable Northshire Books in Manchester, VT to launch What a Body Knows! Off it goes!

The whole family came along to share in the moment. While the others listened, Kai slept the event away, curled in the corner in a soft leather chair. Oh my small enabler!
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Even though this book is my third, I had never given a book launch before. Sure I'd given academic papers on the topics covered in my books. I had lectured and discussed, but never had I talked about why I had written a book, then turned from time to time to read sections from the work.

I loved it. I loved the layering of it, the deep pasts, present, and future all coming together. Then the questions came--thoughtful and relevant, exploring the reach of the book's ideas. Something was right.
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We moved to the farm so I could write this book. I have known this for a while. But as I prepared for the talk, I realized that the reverse was just as true. I wrote this book so I could move to the farm. Writing the book--the desire to write the book--made moving necessary. It wasn't just that I needed to practice what I was preaching, but I needed the experience of finding the wisdom in my own desire in order to discover and flesh out what it was that needed to be said. The book wrote itself through me, as I lived it.

It is a sobering thought.

This Friday is the fourth anniversary of that day when our offer on this place was accepted. Since then, there has not been one moment when we ever doubted or regretted the decision. And as we launch this book, our book, all together, I am awash with gratitude in the wonder of it all. Or perhaps it is just the smell of lilacs bursting.



For more about What a Body Knows or to purchase your copy, please visit: VITAL ARTS. Then share your comments, ask your questions, let us know what you think!