A Way of Knowing is about small things and little occasions, the smells, colours, sounds, the looking, perceiving, thinking, remembering of our lives and the love that makes them significant. In a mix of poems, stories and material suitable for private or public reflection the book explores our knowing and our unknowing. It celebrates the validity of all experience, singing the creation and resting in the beauty of silence. The Buddha was once asked, 'What makes a person holy?' He replied, 'Every hour is divided into a certain number of seconds and every second into a certain number of fractions. Anyone who is able to be totally present in each fraction of a second is holy.' There is nothing common about common life - it takes an awakened sense to see what is mysterious in each ordinary moment, to ponder in our hearts, to really see people and things - not our preconceptions of them. Sharing the story of who we are and what we have seen, listening to the stories of others, using our imagination fully, these are amongst the greatest things we can do in our time on earth. Imagination matters. It helps us see clearly things as they are and as they could be. It makes the particular universal. A way of being and placing, seeing and naming, that holds the intensity of the moment, cherishing it, playing the music of dailyness through all remembering: a way of knowing, a way to the intelligence of the heart.

Unique among the species, humans create their world through language and imagination. In this we have the potential to be aggressive, violent and oppressive, or gentle, creative and vulnerable. Words express and shape what we are or might become. We are all poets when we attempt to express the essence of our own experiences. As we tell and listen, we develop our sense of community and our humanity. Because the personal is also political, this process creates peace between people, in society, and among nations. The readings and activities in this book aim to lead us to a deeper understanding of how we use language. As we become more discriminating in our use of words, so we can better tell our own stories and relate to the experiences of others.

Other poems tell of a path in poetry shared with people the author knows and loves, as well as strangers. Not a path to follow but a path made by walking - a kind of pilgrimage. And there are new poems too ...the walk, the story, the poetry go on ...See how they come: bare feet on the warm earth, disturbing the dust of ages, to the telling place where the joy of birth and beginnings is shared and the colours of hope imagined: for every baby born, a star for all life on earth, a story and a promise. (From A parable of being)

"Where are the altars?": In the churches and great cathedrals? or out in the world and in the everyday? Joy Mead writes: 'I find myself bombarded with annunciations: sunlight on dead leaves, the pattern of tree bark, daisies and dandelion seeds, bread flowers, butterflies, the smile of a child, a baby's hands, an old women's lines face, pictures of the Sri Lankan children going back to school after the tsunami, the tears of a stranger. Things, events, people - bathed in a special light - amazing me as never before with their wonder, mystery and value, part of a world more extraordinary than I can take in. (isn't this what a visit from an angel is!).' This is a collection of poetry from the author of "A Telling Place", "The One Loaf" and "Making Peace in Practice and Poetry".

A book which explores the making and the mystery of bread: growing, making, baking, sharing in story and recipe, poetry and prayer. In bread we see the true connectedness of all life - the uniting of body and soul, spirit and material. It is not just a symbol of life, it is life itself. Without food, life is impossible, so eating becomes sacred. Take and eat means take and live; to share food is to share our life. Jesus, in a simple act, made eating and sharing sacred.

These poems come from the beauty of the glimpsed moment ... a precious jewel held for a short time amid the pain and sorrow of the world, then let go into the bigger picture ... The beauty is what we remember, what gives the moment its significance. It's the way it's always been: to reach the sea, to stand watching, waiting; to know that nothing can be unravelled to its core but is like reflecting where wild flowers gathered in a vase, framed by a shore cottage window make of themselves a sea-wide subject: the beauty of things together. A blackbird sings and the song echoes in fragments of memory. Joy Mead is a member of the Iona Community and the author of The One Loaf, Making Peace in Practice and Poetry, Where are the Altars?, Words and Wonderings and A Way of Knowing, all published by Wild Goose Publications. She has been involved in development education and justice and peace work and occasionally leads creative writing groups.

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.