If books were dancers, I would take special delight in sending Passionate Embrace: Faith, Flesh, Tango onto the dance floor with Celeste Snowber’s Embodied Prayer: Towards Wholeness of Body, Mind, Soul. When I read this inspired book almost twenty years ago, I underlined passages like this:
However we phrase it, men and women are crying out to discover the wildness within them, the passionate, the intuitive, the child, the creative, the part that acknowledges both spirit and body, the part of them that enlivens and fuels them through life. We are tired of being separated from our bodies, we yearn for connectedness, wholeness, and healing.
When I entered the sensually and spiritually rich world of Argentine Tango, Embodied Prayer came off my bookshelves once again, practically begging to be read anew. Fresh meaning infused the words; this time I read it not just with my mind but with my whole body. So it is that I dared to ask Celeste Snowber to provide an advance review of my book. With delight and gratitude, I share her response here:
With Passionate Embrace, Vander Schaaf brings us into a beautiful, vibrant space, filled with visceral details of a life lived authentically. With poetic sensibility, she tells the story of how the beauty of tango lead her on an intimate and profound journey. Vander Schaaf brings spirit and body to all her words, words that celebrate vulnerability, resilience, and yearning. We are led as by a beautiful dance partner, with words that dance on the page.
–Celeste Snowber, PhD, dancer, educator, writer, author of Embodied Prayer: Towards Wholeness of Body, Mind, Soul.
Originally posted on www.passionateembrace.ca, August 2013.