![\"Toes](\"http:\/\/www.rolledscroll.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/Toes-3.jpeg\")
<\/a>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0THE<\/strong> T<\/strong>AO OF TOES<\/strong><\/span><\/em><\/p>\nI\u2019ve found a great pedicurist who makes my feet look cute. So for a break from my everyday schedule of writing that plays havoc with my neck and shoulders, I thought I\u2019d book a different treatment at the same spa.<\/p>\n
My appointment yesterday for a\u00a0deep-tissue massage led to an interesting discussion with the therapist, whose answer to all life\u2019s problems lay, she explained, in the personal application of astrology\u2014a \u201cscientific\u201d system that I should use in getting to the psychic root of my muscular pains. Didn\u2019t God place the stars in the heavens in the expectation that we would use the spiritual powers they afforded?<\/p>\n
Earlier in the receiving lounge a waiting client, an aging truck driver wearing plaid flannel, witnessed to me about the wonderful help he was receiving there for his diabetes through reiki <\/em>(which he pronounced \u201creekie\u201d like it was a bad smell)\u2014a Buddhist practice whereby the life force energy is transferred through the palms of the healer by the laying on of hands. During his testimonial to me, his portly wife finished her session and limped into the lounge to join us; yes, she proclaimed, her aura was finally adjusted.<\/p>\n Now, I live in a small city built upon the industries of agriculture and natural gas, where Sunday mornings the cops still set up radar traps to catch churchgoers. Most residents here are politically conservative and culturally down to earth, their feet firmly planted in the soil while their heads brush the heavens (to coin G.K. Chesterton). Yet, in the span of two hours, I faced the encroaching tide of Eastern mysticism so at odds with Western sensibilities\u2014a philosophical corrective for our era, many would say, that allows\u00a0the circular flow of \u201cbalance\u201d to trump the linear march of propositional \u201ctruth\u201d as the source of peace. All religions\u00a0are the same, they declare; all cultural viewpoints carry equal validity for seekers of harmony.<\/p>\n Everyone is looking for inner peace, striving to find rest for the soul.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n This is the message behind my next novel, which in my drafting has now hit the noteworthy word count of 80,000 (only 20K to go). I\u2019m grappling with a character who believes\u2014like the massage therapist yesterday\u2014that she can chase down peace and the fullness of life if only she tries hard enough to let the organic fullness of The Universe speak into her existence.<\/p>\n In my story, Libby (a 50-ish, single salesclerk in Minneapolis who loves cooking\u00a0soup and\u00a0hates apartment living) is on the verge of her first house\u00a0purchase after years of caring for her only real family\u2014her recently deceased grandmother who is speaking to her from beyond the grave\u00a0through a letter and the bequest of an antique child’s ring. But Libby’s\u00a0younger friend Sybil (zany owner of Amulets Alternative Apothecary) is begging her instead to blow her\u00a0budget\u00a0on traveling with\u00a0her to sacred places\u00a0around the world\u2014a monastery in Japan, a mountaintop in Africa, a mosque in Istanbul. They compromise with\u00a0a road trip to North Dakota, up near the Canadian border, to take in a tour through a mansion museum led by the newly wed and very pregnant historian-curator Paige (who speaks on behalf of\u00a0the town\u2019s founder and builder of the mansion). In that old house Libby discovers her cultural heritage and the true meaning of \u201chome,\u201d to enter her personal rest.<\/p>\n Wish me luck (or, perhaps I should say, pray for providence) as I push on to the end of my theological exploration. Like any piece of fiction, my novel is just a little story\u2014but I know how influential story can be to potential readers who are treading out their own walk of life.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0THE TAO OF TOES I\u2019ve found a great pedicurist who makes my feet look cute. So for a break from my everyday schedule of writing that plays havoc with my neck and shoulders, I thought I\u2019d book a different treatment at the same spa. My appointment yesterday for a\u00a0deep-tissue massage […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rolledscroll.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/692"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rolledscroll.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rolledscroll.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rolledscroll.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rolledscroll.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=692"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.rolledscroll.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/692\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":708,"href":"https:\/\/www.rolledscroll.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/692\/revisions\/708"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rolledscroll.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=692"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rolledscroll.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=692"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rolledscroll.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=692"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}