Words and Wonderings: Conversations with Present-day Prophets

Words and Wonderings is a celebration of gratitude, kindness, mindfulness, truth and the love of beauty through the gifts and giftedness of poets, artists, musicians, gardeners, bakers and many more, who discover their creativity in communion with others.

Through conversations and connections Joy Mead explores the true meaning of community – beyond the jargon of ‘community cohesion’ and the ‘Big Society’.

But what matters most and is central to this book is wonder – be it at the sunrise or the food on our plates, the intricacy of a grain of wheat or the diversity of people, bread baked and broken, gardens, orchards, kitchens, poetry, painting, music … or simply being a part of the way good communities make themselves and value their distinctiveness. The words of this book all begin a process towards what can’t be told but can be shared, towards recovering that sense of wonder at our earth and one another, which is what justifies our being alive.

Includes conversations with:

• organic baker and founder of Bread Matters Andrew Whitley
• editor of Resurgence magazine Satish Kumar
• author of Gaia's Kitchen Julia Ponsonby
• writer and broadcaster Colin Tudge
• editor of Permaculture Magazine Maddy Harland
• poet, storyteller and ex Iona Abbey Warden Jan Sutch Pickard
• composer and conductor Sir Peter Maxwell Davies
• Director of the St Magnus Festival, Orkeny, Glenys Hughes
• artist Sophie Hacker
• award-winning poet Lesley Saunders
• artist and designer Stephen Raw
• Methodist minister and retreat leader Donald Eadie
• interfaith worker Sister Maire Hayes
• former Ugandan refugee and founder of BK.LUWO Filda Abelkec
• gardener, educator and artist Dawn Sanders