The price of finding Love? Nothing less than Everything.
For this Safari, Life chose a solitary character in search of...something to make sense of why she was here. A burden to her single mother and born in South Africa, a reviled country in the middle of a war, she belonged nowhere exactly. A clean slate, she had to write her life by living it.
This story about the growth of emotional intelligence is for those who have struggled with the sense that their own life has, or once had, unique intentions that they could deeply feel but not fully fathom
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A pilgrimage in search of love. Its 'patchwork' stitches together rich and idiosyncratic characters, some who love abundantly, some incapable of it, and some intent on its destruction. (Villains are necessary to all good stories). Through all these fractured mirrors, the pilgrimage is towards the transcendent lovingness of Creation. Its natural mysticism emerges like smoke from damp leaves.
Profound insights into spiritual and philosophical understanding are subtly woven throughout the beautifully written narrative. They will challenge your conventional beliefs and inspire recognition of the Perfection of the Commonplace.
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It rides through the widest emotional landscapes of contrast: living through the Apartheid conflict between black and white, the disconnect between African and European cultures, the generosity of strangers, the betrayal of friends, and rejection by family. Finally, it braves what most call 'madness', the penetration of the subconscious. Its blinding enlightenment forged both bow and shield, sources of resilience for the trials that followed.
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Her own double-slit life of perpetual synchronicity and entanglement validated the theory's truth, enriched its vocabulary, and fortified her against ridicule and rejection. Miracles intervened at critical junctures, compelling her to realise that her life was not entirely her own. Life is a web; we belong to one another. Every life is shaped as much by its future aspirations (the breath of life) as by its past limitations (fear and doubt).
George Eliot's books and life circumstances (she had trodden a similar path) spurred the author on to leave Africa for England, to leave her marriage for risky independence until Exile took everything from her, except the need to understand and to repay. The Return was to write her own Book of Revelations for others. This is that Book
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We all have a lamp to trim for the coming of our bridegroom. This harrowing but often humorous chronicle (God tells good stories with both wit and parody) is one such Trimming.
