Starting a series on books I’m reading, and why, and how! I like having I-Thou encounters with books and art. To be transformed by their most illuminated thoughts or ideas–what I would call their “revealed theology”. The best thoughts of men, pale in comparison to one single thought infected by God. I try to find God thoughts with books, and just as with people, search for the “good soil”–where God already is, and is working to form Himself. I start my conversation there, just as in counseling.

That’s how I read. I try to find God in other, and amplify in that area, until I can hear well. Usually it is where Love is. In conversations with people, i try to find where their heart is responsive to His Spirit and expand that area. I think it is the same with books for me. I love books, as if they were people. And some really can change your life, if you are willing to deeply encounter them. Some seeds are eternal. Some must be uncovered, others are more overt. When we love something, we start to see it as it is, and call it towards that place in itself. And in doing so, we are transformed. This is the art and purpose of seeing well.

I try to go spirit to spirit or deep to deep, or I to Thou when I read. It’s a bit redundant when actually reading I and Thou again, which arrived along with other friends in the mail today. I love getting books in the mail, tiny regalos or gifts containing whole worlds, just arrive in a little box, and when received as treasures, open up inner riches.

In this new series, i’m going to be writing about books I’m reading and some I’ve been reading for nearly 30 years and still gleaning from. These guys arrived today, so thought I’d start there.

 So just today, two of my favorite Jewish thinkers from our century arrived in my little silver post box by the front door! I’m replenishing a few lost books this season. I carried “I and Thou”, along with with Brother Lawrence’s “Practicing the Presence” around in my back pockets in my college days, but they fell out along the way-not out of my heart, or mind, but out of my clowny pockets.
Back then, i wanted to have a small library with me at all times. I liked having knowledge on my body, just in case. Maybe I thought I would forget everything, or just wanted to be surrounded by people’s best thoughts. Later when I lived in my car, it became a mobile library and art gallery. This may have all started as a kid when i could just stack books all around me, in order to think.
 Often I wouldn’t even read many of the books, i just liked being near them like having lots of friends nearby while working. I’ve never stopped loving books themselves, as well as many of the eternal seeds that somehow get pressed between their codex covers. Surely, there are many many books and scrolls in heaven! But back here on earth, back to today, back to Martin Buber and Abraham Heschel, back to Walter Brueggemann. Back to old and newer friends. Martin and Rabbi Heschel arrived first.
 These two great Jewish revivalist were friends in Berlin, so I think it’s cool they arrived in a package together today for a late birthday gift. The package, marked NYC and other cities, seemed so small and profane to contain such huge and sacred profound thoughts. It sort of forced me to do what Heschel teaches: put the everyday and God into the same thought!
My mentor in college, was catholic mystic aestheticist, and great friend of Buber’s thoughts. I’m thankful he taught me about art through Buber’s categories of thought! To this day, i still try to find the inner thou in art I’m looking at! Or people or cities for than matter. To try to have I-thou encounters with them, rather than I-it! I try to read books that way also! So they change me with their brightest seeds!
And of course, Heschel had such heart ecumenism and a poetic voice, he’s hard to ignore on any topic, especially the prophets, who are my favorites!
 Enjoying them all dialoguing at my table this morning. Of course, Heschel and Buber were friends, so I think they liked being in the same package which arrived today. I left my last copy of “I asked for Wonder” on a plane recently, filled with my notes. Someone is surely enraptured in wonder now, and considering what really gives meaning to this short version of life down here…enjoying a study morning anyways with some old friends!
Again, when God asked Heschel what he wanted in life, he asked for wonder rather than success. God liked his answer and gave him both.
 I’m throwing Walter Brueggemann, the christian old testament scholar, into the mix because his book on Sabbath has the same density of knowing as the other two, and it is good thinking about the commandments, mainly the ten but a few others, more deeply from a Christian perspective. Nice rainy morning Monday meditations! So much to learn yet! One thing about books and thinkers—like these flowers they seem to say more in conversation with one another, or become more than themselves in unison. Nice conversation to overhear thus far!
  I’m still moved by books, men, women, cities, nations, by people, places and things and by beholding them in their inner truth or essence–finding their true image and loving it alive, as I become alive. In doing so, we both become more ourselves. Spiritual perception changes us. We practice this by reading books well or having good conversations with people. We practice this depth beholding by making art, and encountering art well. Seeing things in love honors, calls forth and allows them and us to be what we actually are. Seeing things with deep curiosity and through the lens of love, changes everything, including us. This is what we talk about, when we talk about spiritual perception, seeing things into wholeness or more as they really are, or seeing the world through God’s Eyes.
  I still love art,  books and people. And, I am still humbled by those who have gone farther into the forest of The Father’s knowing than me, as these three men have. I’m thankful for the clearing in the woods of knowing and becoming they became and are! Glad to be in conversation with these fellows today! Like these flowers they seem to say more in conversation with one another, or become more than themselves in unison in my heart. So I’ll let them have an open dialogue. I’ll garden steward their conversation, as they interview one another in my heart. Thanks for arriving at my table fathers.