cover image Soul Fire: Accessing Your Creativity

Soul Fire: Accessing Your Creativity

Thomas Ryan, . . SkyLight Paths, $16.99 (138pp) ISBN 978-1-59473-243-0

Don't let the author's title of reverend scare you away from this soulful cheer for creativity. A Catholic priest and yoga instructor, Ryan artfully blends his personal journey with equal parts travelogue and biography, yet manages through engaging end-of-chapter exercises to bring the focus back to the reader seeking spiritually creative motivation. At times the combination of his poetry and guidance is a bit awkward and perhaps even indulgent, yet at the same time it is a seductively brave demonstration of his challenge to “Surrender to the Adventure.” Friendly and even almost confidential in his manner (“Here's the thing about creativity: It's a live growing entity”) he still maintains enough of an air of authority (think yoga master, not schoolmaster) that the questions for reflection and creativity exercises are less like homework and more like steep mountain climbs or complicated yoga positions, delicious in their challenge. Although Ryan is better at relating his own experiences than helping readers generate their own “soul fire,” his exuberance is more than enough to inspire and encourage others—regardless of their professed or practiced faith—who seek an enlightened, emboldened path of spiritual creativity. (Mar.)