The Publishing Milestone that No One Mentions

This might be the most exciting thing that’s happened to me in the midst of launching my first book.  Last week, I reposted one of those perennial facebook memes:

Since I was reading The Little Book of Restorative Justice by Howard Zehr, I typed up the appropriate page 45 sentence:

To use an image that is more organic, we might diagram restorative justice as a flower.

My friends added quotes of their own, and then one of them posted this!

The request for light in the second part of the examen is, in essence, the honest version of Benedick’s exclamation in Shakespeare’s ‘Much Ado About Nothing’ regarding the power of love to transfigure our understanding of the world.

That’s mine!  It’s from Arriving at Amen: Seven Catholic Prayers that Even I Can Offer.  

I hadn’t even realized that writing a book meant that I had made something that could be used in bibliomancy.

If you’re curious, here’s a little more context for that quote:

The request for light in the second part of the Examen is, in essence, the honest version of the soldier Benedick’s exclamation in Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing regarding the power love has to transfigure our understanding of the world. Seeing his friend in love, Benedick wonders aloud “May I be so converted and see with these eyes?” In the second stage of the Examen, I repeat his words, but leave off the question mark. I can sympathize with the stubborn Benedick, which is why I like borrowing his words. “Clarity” sounds safe and dull, a mere sharpening of the vision you already have, but Benedick understands that swapping out your perspective for someone else’s, even if the new vantage point is better, is transformative and more than a little bit scary.

And if you’d like a lot more context, Arriving at Amen is available through Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and in person if you come to a talk!

And as a bonus: tomorrow’s the discussion I’m hosting on the Benedict Option.  I’m running it in partnership with Fare Forward, and their editor, Peter Blair, has put together a list of his favorite readings that the attendees have been recommending to each other.