What People are Saying about
A Heart’s Landscape
“A collection of uplifting pensées featuring reassuring words and captivating images. Lax, a meditation teacher and spiritual coach, offers a selection from her “Morning Inspiration” email newsletter of daily reflections, accompanied by her own photographs. The brief musings, arranged in no particular order, are inspired by everyday encounters and recollections of her life and family. They run the gamut of inspirational themes, including the importance of living in the moment, the pleasures of spontaneity (especially impromptu dancing), the acceptance of one’s faults, and the necessity of offering love and compassion inclusively. She also addresses the beauty of nature in her native Israel and in the United States, where she lives now. Lax’s prose poems offer a variety of moods, the most common being blithe celebration—“today, enjoy a skip around the room; be enthusiastic about yourself.” There are also warmhearted aphorisms: “Gift yourself a moment to smile for no reason; The reasons may grow and grow.” There are playful accounts of humorous moments, as when the author arrived breathlessly from a bathroom pit stop to deliver a lecture only to learn that that “my dress had gotten caught up in my leggings and my rear was practically exposed to all.” There’s an occasional tone of sonorous abstraction (“Call upon your inner luminosity to guide you”), but the author also, more effectively, captures human contact with evocative specificity. At her best, Lax deftly conveys subtle but moving emotional crosscurrents, as in a spare portrait of her mother-in-law: “She was a survivor, not a fan of tears. Tears were a sign of weakness, showing the absence of courage and bravery. For her, life was about survival. Tears stood in the way of survival.” The accompanying photos are beguiling, with sun-dappled seascapes, forest and mountain scenes, and lots of flowers, all rendered in lush color. Overall, many readers will find this collection to be an energizing daily constitutional for the soul. Rich words of wisdom on life and happiness.”
Kirkus Reviews
“With the publication of A Heart's Landscape: An Invitation to the Garden of Moments, author Susan Lax explores the gifts of awareness and encourages her readers to be present in the moment.
With A Heart's Landscape, Lax offers a path to an attentive heart. On every page, her words and timeless photographs meet your soul in the perfect place. In times of grief, illness, or life transitions, you'll find healing and strength within these pages. As a spiritual counselor, end-of-life caregiver, and Reiki practitioner, Lax shares the truths and inspirations she has learned from the beauty of the human spirit and the gifts of nature and awareness.
Wonderment patiently hopes to be discovered and illuminated by all you are.
A unique, unusual, insightful, thought-provoking, and ultimately inspiring read that will be of special and particular interest to those with an interest in the subjects of energy healing, love and loss, death and grieving, A Heart's Landscape: An Invitation to the Garden of Moments is an extraordinary and unreservedly recommended addition to personal, community, college, and university library Self-Help/Self-Improvement collections.
Midwest Book Review
“Susan Lax’s A Heart’s Landscape is a resource offering comfort, wisdom, inspiration and hope to be consulted and savored one moment at a time when one needs it most. Lax’s meditative text and photos invite you—the secular or religious reader—to embrace bibliomancy: Let the book fall open where it will and delight in Lax’s gentle reminder to smile, revel in your truth, and wonder like a child. As a nurse, I hope bedridden readers and those who minister to them take Lax’s hand in this spiritual journey. In my mind, I’m jumping on the bed with Susan Lax.”
Varda Spiegel RN MPH
“In a conversation that flows and then pauses to breathe and to learn and to look anew, Susan Lax melds strength and compassion to bring life-wisdom to every page. A literal labor of love.”
Bradley Burston, Journalist
“A Heart’s Landscape captures the resilience of the human spirit which triumphs over grief and disappointments while accentuating the precious facets of life. Definitely an inspirational book, providing companionship, solace and beauty, this book belongs close by, to be opened whenever the soul seeks some nourishment and gentle strokes. It is truly a treat to be savored, time and again, delighting the palate of the heart. The beautiful photographs add an additional and pleasing dimension to the scope of the book.”
Rabbi Miri Gold, Israel
“A Heart’s Landscape by Susan Lax is a rare blend of exquisite poetry, soulful wisdom, and much-needed whimsy. In her own gentle and compassionate way, Lax invites us to awaken our hearts to all that is, and to deepen our attention so that we may find in each moment of our lives the courage, humility, honesty, and hope that sustain the human spirit. Lax shows us how to imbue the daily encounters of life with magic, and awe-inspiring moments with humility and hope. Lax’s open heart and smiling eyes waft through this book like sunshine over a dappled wood, sprinkling delight, kindness, and playfulness throughout these pages of stunning images and words which both press and inspire us toward becoming our own best selves. A Heart’s Landscape will surely become a trusted companion for everyone seeking the inner calm to love and live deeply and wholeheartedly.”
Jeannie Blaustein, Ph.d, D. Ministry, Founding Board Chair, Reimagine End of Life
“For years I have been given the gift of a daily morning inspiration from Susan Lax. What started as words to maintain a bond and provide hope for a friend of hers challenged with cancer, evolved to a mission driven by passion to bring daily joy, encouragement and words of kindness. Now these gifts have manifested as “A Heart’s Landscape,” a “Garden of Moments”, and as a beautifully choreographed collection of inspirations and photographs. Truly a full menu and range of nourishment for the soul.”
Shimon Waldfogel, MD
A Heart’s Landscape: An Invitation to the Garden of Moments is a meditative, healing debut by the lyrical Susan Lax. The author pens contemplative poems that aim to uncover some of life’s most important yet least gaudy occasions; tranquil pictures reinforce the themes. This one’s just waiting to live on your coffee table and warm your heart as much as that fuzzy throw blanket warms your body.
Kirkus Reviews highly praises Lax’s offering, saying, “The accompanying photos are beguiling, with sun-dappled seascapes, forest and mountain scenes, and lots of flowers, all rendered in lush color. Overall, many readers will find this collection to be an energizing daily constitutional for the soul.” Good Morning America’s Robin Roberts, meanwhile, recently chose it as one of her top holiday picks. Now stepping, quietly hopeful, into the new year, this book proves an excellent companion.
FROM HUMBLE BEGINNINGS TO NEW BEGINNINGS
The subtitle, “An Invitation to the Garden of Moments,” adeptly captures its essence. Each poignant note, especially when paired with a complimentary photo, is as welcome as a springtime daffodil. Like a well-plotted garden, the book is a compilation of diverse individual seeds that unite to more than the sum of their parts. Some as bold as a towering sunflower, some as delicate as a diminutive violet, this garden is worth a visit during every season of life. Thankfully, these “moments” are picked, pressed and preserved so they remain perennial. Accept the invitation to a gathering that will enliven, not exhaust.
The introduction explains “How This Book Came to Be” with grace and gravity. Lax’s dear friend was suffering from cancer, and the author lifted her spirits by composing a celebration of that friend’s courage and resilience in the form of a daily morning email. One day, she decided to sleep in, and her friend noticed. “Where is my morning blessing? Why didn’t you send it today?”
Thus, a new horizon appeared for Lax. She began writing blessings for other cancer patients, then received a summons from women all over the world, and then men joined the fray. She shares, “I never asked them, nor do I ask today, how they discovered Morning Inspiration. Perhaps it is the way of the universe that when we are ready to receive what we need, it finds us.” More than a decade later, a book was in bloom.
REST IN A READING SANCTUARY
It leads off with a poem about the ocean and an image of teal waves against a cerulean sky. How do you approach the wave? Do you approach the wave? “Similar are your choices and power when you meet up with changes on your personal journey … The next time you see the wave coming, be aware of your choices.” Elsewhere, a storytime session with one of her daughters inspires a blessing that is now being read by humans of all ages across the globe. Now isn’t that encouraging?
Lax also acknowledges the harder things, with mentions of COVID, worries and sickness alongside her notes on lullabies and carrot soufflé. It’s all a part of life; with the first line of one blessing, “Romeo was my dog,” a simple tense of a verb says much indeed. Here’s one of the shorter poems (though none are ever overly verbose) that gives a small glimpse into what to expect in each offering.
Don’t tell me it will be fine.
Don’t tell me it will all work out.
Just sit here beside me and hold my hand.
For in your grasp, I find the courage and bravery
to make my next moment a good one.
As another one of the poems remarks, “Gift yourself a moment to smile for no reason; the reasons may grow and grow.” Reading A Heart’s Landscape, even a single blessing of A Heart’s Landscape, will be one of those reasons.
BookTrib.com