cover image Building Your Field of Dreams

Building Your Field of Dreams

Mary Manin Morrissey. Bantam Books, $22.95 (282pp) ISBN 978-0-553-10214-7

This book chronicles Morrissey's realization of her dream to create a ministry (she founded the Living Enrichment Center in Oregon) from her unlikely beginning as a teenage wife and mother and lays out a step-by-step method to become ""a cocreator with God"" and follow your true calling. Morrissey counsels would-be ministers to use her five essential questions to test their dreams: Is it enlivening? Does it align with your values? Do you need help from a higher source? Will you grow into your true self? Will it bless others? For example, Morrissey stresses such spiritual disciplines as tithing (giving 10% of your income) without regard for the circumstance. When she and her family were down to their last three dollars early in her ministry, she gave 30 cents to the local church, and, sure enough, her family was blessed with money shortly thereafter. There is no question that Morrissey is sincere in her desire to help people tap into God's power in order to realize their dreams, but she often uses tired spirituality cliches, like the Zen master who pours tea until it overflows (indicating the cluttered mind). Still, though Morrissey's imagery is mostly Christian, she is careful to acknowledge other belief systems and says nothing that would put off the ""New Thought"" reader. (July)