Hints for the Heart: Embodying the Soul

By Gunilla Norris

"Timeless wisdom, poetic and true, to return to again and again as you journey on the path. Hints for the Heart is a beautiful invitation to enter the flow of our lives and discover the boundless mystery of who we really are."

-Tara brach, author of Radical Acceptance

"Living ordinary li

• Language: English
• Publisher: Wayfarer Books
• Release date: May 2, 2023
• ISBN: 9781956368574

Gunilla Norris

Gunilla Norris lives in Rhode Island. Old and Singing is her fourth book of poetry. Her second book, Joy is the Thinnest Layer, won the Nautilus gold prize for the best collection of poems in 2017. Gunilla is also the author of several books on the spirituality of the everyday. Visit her website: GunillaNorris.com.

Book preview

PRAISE FOR HINTS FROM THE HEART

"Timeless wisdom, poetic and true, to return to again and again as you journey on the path. Hints for the Heart is a beautiful invitation to enter the flow of our lives and discover the boundless mystery of who we really are."

—TARA BRACH, author of Radical Acceptance

Living ordinary life with extraordinary love is the key to the contemplative journey. Norris takes the ordinary forgotten actions of each day and helps us celebrate them in a way that intensifies our awareness.

—FATHER CARL J. ARICO

If by acclamation a spiritual master of the quotidian could be announced surely the name Gunilla Norris would sound uncontested. No one illumines the mysteries of the moment as she does—the gifts of every-day grace, of familiar sacraments, of veiled divinities awaiting our discovery.

—KATHLEEN NOONE DEIGNAN, Director The Institute For Earth and Spirit At Iona University

"Hints from the Heart is an invitation to discover God through the simple gifts of sense and self. Through the gifts of breath, touch, taste, sight, and smell she invites us to awaken to wonder and oneness—and in the process to become love, the only real hope for our hurting world."

—THE REV. MATTHEW WRIGHT

WAYFARER BOOKS

WWW.WAYFARERBOOKS.ORG

© 2023 TEXT BY GUNILLA NORRIS

Wayfarer Books supports copyright. Copyright fuels creativity, encourages diverse voices, promotes free speech, and creates a vibrant culture. Thank you for buying an authorized edition of this book and for complying with copyright laws by not reproducing, scanning, or distributing any part of it in any form without permission. You are supporting writers and allowing us to continue to publish books for every reader.

All Rights Reserved

Published in 2023 by Wayfarer Books

Cover Design and Interior Design by Leslie M. Browning

Cover & Interior Image © Marish

TRADE PAPERBACK 978-I-956368-42-0

HARDCOVER 978-I-956368-43-7

EBOOK 978-I-956368-54-3

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 I

Look for our titles in paperback, ebook, and audiobook wherever books are sold. Wholesale offerings for retailers available through Ingram.

Wayfarer Books is committed to ecological stewardship. We greatly value the natural environment and invest in conservation. For each book purchased in our online store we plant one tree.

HOMEBOUNDPUBLICATIONS.COM & WAYFARERBOOKS.ORG

ALSO BY THE AUTHOR

Being Home

Becoming Bread

Inviting Silence

A Mystic Garden

Simple Ways

Sheltered in the Heart

Match

Joy is the Thinnest Layer

Companions on the Way

Calling the Creatures

Touched by Blessing

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Grateful thanks to my editor, Les Browning, for their generous and continued support of my writing.

Warm thanks to Frank Pendola and John Roarke for their welcome input in the unfolding of this book.

Listen to your life. See it for the fathomless mystery that it is. In the boredom and pain of it no less than in the excitement and gladness: touch, taste, smell your way to the holy and hidden heart of it because in the last analysis all moments are key moments, and life itself is grace . . .

—FREDERICK BUECHNER

CONTENTS

Introduction

To Breathe

To See

To Hear

To Touch

To Taste and Smell

To Stand

To Walk

To Speak

To Think

To Work

To Play

To Trust and Bless

To Rest

To Be Love

Ending Words

About the Author

About the Press

INTRODUCTION

A hint is a whisper, a little nudge, and a still small voice. When hints come from the heart they are to be listened to, lived and integrated by us so that we can become more soulful. We know that it is one thing to understand with the mind and an entirely different thing to become and embody what we understand. One hint from the heart that is fully lived can change us fundamentally. In reading this book you will be integral to what can happen. Open it at random or pick a topic that appeals to you at the time. Perhaps you’ll light a candle before