I was truly honored when my friend Carmen Acevedo Butcher wrote about me recently in her blog. Carmen is an author, teacher, poet, and award-winning translator of spiritual texts. I fell in love with her dynamic translation of the Middle English classic The Cloud of Unknowing when it was first released back in 2009. Carmen wrote about our friendship in her blog post, Red Dirt, Rilke, & The Sidney Psalter:

“Thankful for these poets, I reflect. I also do not consider myself writing alone but in the company of others, readers and writers, present and past, connecting these diverse strands: Grizzle, Rilke, VanderHart.”

This is the first time I’ve ever been mentioned in the same sentence as the poet Rainer Maria Rilke! I’m grateful for my community of readers and writers, past and present, a literary “cloud of witnesses” that enrich my life as well as my writing efforts.

I’m looking forward to reading Practice of the Presence, Carmen’s upcoming translation of the classic text from 1692 by Brother Lawrence. You can pre-order it here.