You are opening a deep and mysterious book, a book of life. It might look like a biography or a memoir, but that is only its persona. The mystery begins right away when it is stated that Rinske Salverda met an indigenous elder who told her she must write her story. She obeyed. Among the mysteries you will encounter: remember the ancestors, they are the context of our lives; memory is sensuous, that is, we learn that the past is not gone, it's not even past; our ancestors are often our first contact with death, and thus of the depth of life; life unfolds as a whole; Nature is our best spiritual teacher; the profound is found in the simple; awakening to spirit is terribly painful; silence is the way of spiritual life in the world; there are forces that do not want us to spiritually awaken. The deepest mystery of all that is revealed is that life itself is not only a spiritual practice, it is, finally, the only spiritual practice. - ROBERT SARDELLO Ph.D. Director, The School of Integral Spiritual Psychology