The Wild Land Within

It's easy to get lost in a dense wood or a big city. But it's even easier to get lost in the tangles of our inner lives. In this book, Lisa Colon DeLay offers some of the best inner-life guidance I know. Highly recommended. --Parker J. Palmer, author of On the Brink of Everything; A Hidden Wholeness; Let Your Life Speak; and The Courage to Teach Every page of this book pushes you to explore your inner life and gaze upon a God who is able to provide peace and progress despite what you may find. After reading this book, you'll never look at spiritual growth books the same. --Terence Lester, author and founder of Love Beyond Walls In The Wild Land Within, Lisa Colon DeLay gently nudges us to pay attention to the climate, substance, geography, and topography of our souls--that which affects our spiritual formation from within and without--that we might move toward wholeness. Lisa is a wise and trustworthy guide. This is a much needed contribution to spiritual formation by a Latina woman in the Protestant world. I am incredibly thankful for it. --Marlena Graves, author of The Way Up Is Down: Becoming Yourself by Forgetting Yourself Lisa Colon DeLay is a thoughtful, discerning, and encouraging guide to the sacred places in our hearts and souls where we encounter the Divine Presence and learn to bear the beams of love. To read this book is to embark on a transformational spiritual adventure. --Carl McColman, author of The Big Book of Christian Mysticism and Eternal Heart Lisa Colon DeLay is your companion and guide through the landscape of the interior. It is a wonderful journey that not only brings us closer to ourselves, but also helps us engage with our world and communities. During these times of uncertainty, hardships, and even trauma, The Wild Land Within provides a roadmap for navigating the aching of the heart and soul, the yearnings of the mind and body. --Phuc Luu, PhD, theologian and philosopher, author of Jesus of the East: Reclaiming the Gospel for the Wounded The climatological and geological metaphors in this book were powerful for me. Chasms, fire, still water, wildness--all plunged me more deeply into confronting myself and God in those places I don't often confront or talk about. I was blessed by the dangerous adventure of The Wild Land Within. --Jon M. Sweeney, author of Nicholas Black Elk: Medicine Man, Catechist, Saint and coauthor of Meister Eckhart's Book of the Heart Lisa Colon DeLay offers a hearty, thoughtful, and thorough approach to navigating the terrain of our spiritual lives. From Quakers to cognitive development, from desert fathers to twentieth-century priests and poets, she details the true journey we humans undertake with God. This book is a gift to the conversation around spiritual transformation in Christ. --Casey Tygrett, spiritual director, podcaster, and author of As I Recall: Discovering the Place of Memories in Our Spiritual Life In these pages, Lisa Colon DeLay charts a path toward wholeness, skillfully articulating the layers of distortion that limit our understanding, and calling us toward a transcendent, connected awareness beyond our cultural conditioning of empire mentality and exclusion. This is an incarnational, embodied wisdom, inviting us to reintegration through the diligent inner work of contemplative prayer and attentive listening to the wisdom of the forgotten and marginalized--from Evagrius Ponticus to African American and Latinx spirituality. In her writing and guidance through the inner terrain, DeLay bears the marks of genuine transformation from wound to love. This is a profoundly insightful, important, and illuminating work. --Marc Thomas Shaw, cofounder and executive director of Contemplative Light, and author of Dante's Road: The Journey Home for the Modern Soul Lisa Colon DeLay is a cartographer of the soul. Having ventured through its hills, forests, and ravines, she knows where the hidden creatures lurk and how to cut a path through its darker regions. The result is The Wild Land Within, a spiritual map for reconnecting head and heart, thought and feeling, desire and action. Thoughtful, practical, and delightfully written, this is an enriching book that can help us become whole. --Sheridan Voysey, author of The Making of Us; Resurrection Year; and Reflect with Sheridan In The Wild Land Within, Lisa Colon DeLay offers wisdom and insight to all of us who wish to explore the unknown terrain of our inner worlds. She invites us to be curious about the things we believe and the things we doubt while guiding us toward greater awareness of God's presence in our lives. --Charlotte Donlon, author, The Great Belonging: How Loneliness Leads Us to Each Other