Morgan Harper Nichols

I was so excited when I found Morgan’s newest book of poems at the bookstore ahead of launch day earlier this week! I discovered her work in June and thoroughly loved All Along You Were Blooming and How Far You Have Come.

This third book of poems earned another 5 stars from me. It’s stunningly beautiful. Every time I read her poetry collections, I want to get extra copies of the books so I can frame the colorful pages and hang them all over the walls in my office. The artwork she creates to accompany her pretty words is so lovely. I especially loved the rich rainbow of colors she used in this volume.

Morgan’s poetry is always so timely for me. It touches my soul, helps me to feel hopeful and reminds me I am not alone. She speaks my heart language.

Beautifully done, Morgan! Congratulations on the release of your newest book this week!… (más)

Morgan has become one of my favorite poetic authors this year. I first read her All Along You Were Blooming, then picked up a copy of How Far You Have Come after I loved the other so much.

This volume is beautiful. It is a collection of place-based poetry interspersed with reflective narrative sections, and the whole book is filled with Morgan’s beautiful illustrations. As a native Californian, I especially loved reading the California section, but I also found myself dog-earing pages all throughout the book so I could revisit my favorite poems later on.

Here are a couple of stanzas that stood out to me as I read:

“Invite joy to
meet your sorrow.
Let in hope
for tomorrow.
Bridge the fragments
of who you are,
and learn to see
beauty in your scars.”

“You will desire to go
beyond the limits
to get there faster.
But moving at a careful pace
requires courage in this race,
as if to say
time does not define me,
I do not answer to the tick of the clock
and will not give in to its alluring tongue.
In my own speed,
with my own limits,
I am still becoming.”

“Come back down
to the beat of your heart.
Come back to the joy of color.
Come back home to believing
hope still runs in your veins.
You’re finding your way
in the wind,
but you can always come
back to Light again.”

Highly recommend, and while you’re at it, pick up All Along You Were Blooming too. I liked that one even better, to the point that I wanted to buy an extra two copies so I could turn the pages into a collection of framed art prints for my walls. I still might do just that! =)… (más)

Summary: Forty short reflections with prayers and questions for those who are Enneagram Type Fives.

This is part of a collection of nine nicely bound books with forty reflections for each of the nine Enneagram types. Why am I reviewing the one for Fives? I could say random choice or because Five is halfway between One and Nine. But you’ve probably already figured out that it is because I am a Type Five, or as those into Enneagram would say, I’m a Five. We are variously described as the Investigator, the Thinker, the Observer. I actually think I am far more, but if the Type fits…

The introduction by series editor Suzanne Stabile encourages us to be generous with ourselves as we undergo change and transformation as we grow in self-understanding. Then Morgan Harper Nichols, a five begins with a chapter “On Being a Five.” I felt like she knew me when I read this description:

“The basic desire of the Five is to be capable and competent. We seek to understand and we fear being helpless. We are driven by a pursuit of knowledge that can at times, cause us to live in our heads. We find comfort in our safe places and reading nooks. We can spend a lot of our time thinking, compromising, and searching for insight” (p. 6).

The forty reflections that follow reflect an understanding of that desire and way of living. At different points, we are invited to notice and live in our bodies. We are invited to trust that we know enough and that God can meet us where we don’t. We’re invited to share our understanding rather than keep it to ourselves. We are encouraged to step away from being the removed observer all the time. We’re allowed to acknowledge our need to recharge and give up trying to control that and allow God to fill our cup.

Many of the reflections conclude with a prayer or a question or both. Space is allowed with the questions to jot down your own responses. One example of a question that recognizes how easily Fives compartmentalize life is “How have you compartmentalized your life? Are there ways you could zoom out and look at the whole?” A short prayer that spoke to me was this:

God,
Thank you for giving me this mind.
Thank you for the gift of wisdom.
Teach me today that to lean into your All-Knowingness
more than I lean into my own understanding.
Give me strength to live with questions so that I
may trust that in the space between what I have
asked and your answer, there is abundant room
to grow in faith.
Amen.

The reflections are short, between two and four pages. These easily may be read and reflected upon in fifteen minutes. Self-understanding and transformation are a journey of a lifetime. This little book covers just forty days of that–maybe 600 minutes. But the reflections can lead the five to trust that we are prepared enough, that we know enough, and that God is more than capable of meeting us in the gaps, and to step out on the dance floor rather than hug the wall.

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary review copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.… (más)