Soulfully exploring loss and loneliness as raw materials from which our inner lives can blossom.
Soulfully exploring loss and loneliness as raw materials from which our inner lives can blossom.
Emotions, Healing (general), Quaker
Written in the true spirit of the wounded healer, The Winds of Homecoming draws from and is enriched by the poetry and writings of Rainer Maria Rilke. These fifty short meditative reflections offer you hope and inspiration to embrace your loss and loneliness, transforming what is limiting and restrictive into something freeing and infinitely expansive. Through his writing, Christopher Goodchild walks alongside us, not in his role as spiritual guide, but as a fellow-traveller, writing from a deeply human place of vulnerability. He does not just tell us how to sit in the contemplative fire and be transformed, he shows us. He shows us by the life he has lived, and continues to live. Christopher’s latest book, written with his characteristic lyricism and tender-hearted, compassionate observations on the human condition, is enhanced by four evocative woodcuts by Kent Ambler. Allow the Winds of Homecoming to guide you home.
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Widely recognized as one of the most lyrically intense German-language poets, Rainer Maria Rilke was unique in his efforts to expand the realm of poetry through new uses of syntax and imagery and in an aesthetic philosophy that rejected Christian precepts and strove to reconcile beauty and suffering, life and death. Rilke’s early verse, short stories, and plays are characterized by their romanticism. His early poems show the influence of the German folk song tradition and have been compared to the lyrical work of Heinrich Heine. Walking alongside author Christopher Goodchild, his poetic musing never overtaking the purposeful and intended, and cultured stride of their creator, The Winds of Homecoming: Transforming Loss and Loneliness into Solitude contains fifty short meditative reflections that offer the reader hope and inspiration to embrace their loss and loneliness, transforming what is limiting and restrictive into something freeing and infinitely expansive. As we read along with Goodchild, it quickly becomes clear that whenever Rilke writes about God, he is not referring to the deity in the traditional sense, but rather uses the term to refer to the life force, or nature, or an all-embodying, pantheistic consciousness that is only slowly coming to realize its existence. Indeed, in the last few years of his life, Rilke was inspired by such French poets as Paul Valery and Jean Cocteau and wrote most of his last verses in French. Rilke suffered from illness his whole life and died of leukaemia in 1926 while staying at the Valmont sanatorium near Lake Geneva. On his deathbed, he remained true to his anti-Christian beliefs and refused the company of a priest. FULL REVIEW: https://annecarlini.com/ex_books.php?id=283 ~ Exclusive Magazine, Review
The Winds Of Homecoming by Christopher Goodchild is a powerful book of fifty devotions based on the poems of Rainer Maria Rilke. The Winds Of Homecoming is a powerful read. It will transform your life if you let it. As you read you will draw closer to the heart of God. Work through the devotionals alone or as part of your connect group, discussing and dissecting the devotionals. FULL REVIEW: http://www.christianbookaholic.com/2021/11/09/the-winds-of-homecoming-by-christopher-goodchild/ ~ Christian Bookaholic, Review
It is rare for me to support a book that I feel confident is truly worth a reader’s attention and re-reading. It is beautifully crafted and full of a heart’s intelligence. Clearly it comes from years of experience and deep reflection. It will take you to a healing place in yourself and inspire you to live with all your talents and limitations. ~ Thomas Moore, author of Care of the Soul
... begin your journey alongside Christopher. Dare to share his loss and loneliness and allow it to lead you into the mysterious world of the Divine, the God of the mystics: of Rilke, Teilhard de Chardin and Saint John of the Cross. ~ Sheila Cassidy, author of Made for Laughter, Audacity to Believe and Good Friday People , The Winds of Homecoming
With a wisdom honed by transformative pain, Christopher Goodchild invites us to suffuse our lives with a spacious consciousness from which to engage with what is. A moving, beautiful and profoundly truthful book. ~ Jennifer Kavanagh, author of The World is Our Cloister and A Little Book of Unknowing, Unclouded by Longing
No doubt you’ve read many books in your lifetime. This one stands out. Christopher’s understanding is exceptional. No platitudes or pious restatement of popular wisdom. His insights have been lived and reflected upon and ground to a powder of real profundity. You’ll want to read this book, as I have, more than once. ~ Thomas Moore, author of Care of the Soul , Unclouded by Longing Foreword
Chris Goodchild’s contemplative quest towards becoming at ease with what is, without denying the pain of facing what is in the way of that, is focussed by and within the eternal sky of truth and light. ~ Marian Partington, author of If You Sit Very Still, Unclouded by Longing
Out of the fires of autistic torment, Christopher Goodchild has produced a wonderful gift of profound, life-giving wisdom for all human beings. ~ Gerard W. Hughes, Author of The God of Surprises, A Painful Gift
A moving, deeply moving story that can reveal our woundedness but also our hope. ~ Jean Vanier, founder of l'Arche and co founder of Faith and Light community., A Painful Gift, Foreword
Christopher Goodchild's autobiography of growing up with and coming to terms with his eventual diagnosis of Asperger's is illuminating, particularly in addressing fear of intimacy and entanglement. Few on the autism spectrum tackle this important issue and Christopher does so with great humanity. ~ Donna Williams, author of the international bestsellers, Nobody Nowhere and Somebody Somewhere, A Painful Gift
