They told me early on that it’s important to be able to summarize your writing in brief paragraphs. The truth is, my books are a journal of my deconstruction. I didn’t just want to talk about the process. I wanted to describe what it felt like.
In my first book, Apparent Faith, I used the idea of God as Father to examine how I felt about God. I compared my experience as a father against my understanding of God. My assumption was that God could not be worse than me. This led me to ask lots of questions about the retributive nature of God and our current understanding of religion in the West.
During my deconstruction, we went to visit my son in Taiwan. A scooter accident change the nature of our adventure and led me to a tea house where I met the man with no name. This experience, which would later be called The Tea Shop, was the beginning of my life as a mystic and my understanding of presence and authenticity.
As I began to go inside find my true self, it opened up a new way of being and becoming. But as this process was happening, it also brought up a crisis. So much of my inner trauma was undressed, and the crisis led to healing. The Being book will probably always be at the center of my writing.
The Hotel is a work of fiction even though it’s inspired by a real hotel in my hometown. It is history with a mystery. As I was writing it, parts of my story came through in the writing. Almost all of the main characters have some sort of transformation that happens within them. In a way it is an illustration of the Being book.
All Covers by Rafael Polendo
Laura and I wrote Out into the Desert together to document the evaluation that we did of organized religion in the 21st century. As we wrote it, our stories and our pain came out and it was healing for us. We also honestly assessed whether we were thriving in the desert or not. Many are now resonating with this work.
I hope you find that one of our books resonates with where you are on the journey. Don’t let anyone tell you what or where your journey should be. You know what it is deep down.
Be where you are,
Be who you are,
Be at peace,
Karl Forehand
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