Deacons' Book Club: A Book Review on "Consolations" by Deacon Melissa Wafer-Cross

David Whyte's book Consolations The Solace, Nourishment, and Underlying Meaning of Everyday Words is a book to open with intention or at random. Whyte, a poet and author with roots in Yorkshire, Ireland, and Wales, explores fifty two words in his lyrical prose. He invites us to look at everyday works, reflect on them, and see how they connect to our human experience. Consolations is not a front-to-back read, not even a book to finish reading; you may find yourself reading it again and again. It may even become one of your “desert-island” books.

Each word begins a mini-essay; Whyte's poetic eye examines the word in a way that often turns our perception inside out. Of Pain, he writes: “Pain is the doorway to the here and now. Physical or emotional pain is the ultimate form of ground, saying to each of us, in effect, there is no other body than this body...or sharpness or heartbreak but this searing presence....Pain is a form of alertness and particularity; pain is a way in.” He says “pain's beautiful humiliations” remind us to ask for help, to put aside the guise of pretense, to know that pain can be a foundation for real compassion and understanding.

As he holds the words up to the light, we can see the colors of meaning reflected. It is in Joy Whyte says, “Joy is a meeting place, of deep intentionality and of self-forgetting, the bodily alchemy of what lies inside us in communion which formerly seemed outside, but is now neither, but become a living frontier, a voice speaking between us and the world. ...joy is the act of giving ourselves away before we need to or are asked to, joy is practiced generosity.”

The essays are written affectionately in Whyte's luminous language; they offer a thoughtful but quick bedtime read or morning meditation, a salve to begin the day. There are two oddities in the book, two city names that might surprise you—Rome and Istanbul. No, they aren't travel narratives but reflections on the monuments we've built over a lifetime, what we still love, and what we might need to leave behind.

Find a copy for yourself; get two; and give one to someone who needs consolation or solace or nourishment.

The book can purchased on Amazon.