Synopses & Reviews
In Desert Pilgrim, lapsed Catholic, award winning author, and NPR commentator Mary Swander takes us on a journey of physical and spiritual healing. Having been in a car accident that injured her nech and subsequently caused an infection in her spinal fluid, Swander faced the possibility that she might never walk again. After months of painstaking recovery at home in Iowa, she is able to walk although she remains in constant pain. Offered a visiting professorship at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque, it is here that Swander's healing journey begins in earnest. She meets two significant figures: Father Sergei, a Russian Orthodox priest whose church is in the slums along the once proud route 66; and Lulu, a curandera (Spanish for "healer") who runs an herbal pharmacy of sorts. Together, they will lead Mary on a path that will force her to confront her own deep, dark night of the soul, her lack of faith, and her growing distrust of authority--medical and spiritual. This journey leads her to explore sacred sites in New Mexico--the ancient healing waters of Jemez Springs, and the miraculous soil of El Santuario de Chimayo--as well as to revisit the teachings of Catholic thinkers and mystics such as Theresa of Avila, St. Francis of Assisi, and Hildegard of Bingen. The result is not only a beautifully written chronicle of physical healing, but a meditation on what it means to have faith in the modern world.
Synopsis
Mary Swander was a lapsed Catholic content with the solitude and tenuous spirituality of a life tied to the Iowa prairie and its seasons. But when a car accident left her paralyzed and in chronic pain with no medical cure in sight, she was forced to look inside herself for strength and for meaning. In The Desert Pilgrim she chronicles her miraculous physical recovery and her even more astonishing restoration of faith in the modern world. It is when she arrives to teach at the University of New Mexico that Mary's journey begins in earnest. In Albuquerque she encounters Father Sergei, a Russian Orthodox monk whose barrio church is hidden away on the once-proud Route 66, now the terrain of crack dealers and the homeless. She meets a curandera "Lu, " an herbal healer, whose little pharmacy's first owner rode with Pancho Villa. Together these two will lead her to confront her growing distrust of medical and spiritual authority, and her own dark night of the soul. Evocatively and reflectively written, The Desert Pilgrim weaves together history, herbal medicine, physical healing, and what it means--in this modern age--to believe. PRAISE FOR MARY SWANDER AND Out of This World:
Synopsis
Includes bibliographical references (p. 331-332).
About the Author
Mary Swander, whose eight books include Out of This World: A Journey of Healing, is a widely published poet and essayist, a Whiting Award winner, and a regular commentator on National Public Radio in Iowa and the Southwest. Swander teaches at Iowa State University and lives in Ames and Kalona, Iowa.