"The wilderness of the heart may be untamed, but you don't need to go there alone. In The Wild Land Within, spiritual companion and podcast host Lisa Colon DeLay offers a map to our often-bewildering inner terrain, inviting us to deepen and expand our encounters with God. Through specific spiritual practices from early desert monastics, as well as Latinx, Black, and indigenous contemplatives, she guides us in cultivating lives of devotion. In opening ourselves up to God's healing, we will inevitably come across wounds we didn't even know we had. Colon DeLay uses theology and neuroscience to help us work through buried fear or pain and find embodied spiritual healing from trauma. A contemplative map to the wilderness of the heart, The Wild Land Within guides us through intimate geography in which God dwells."
Lisa Colon DeLay is a teacher, spiritual director, and host of Spark My Muse, a top-rated religion and spirituality podcast. DeLay's guests have included Krista Tippett, James Martin, Parker J. Palmer, Mark Nepo, Lisa Feldman Barrett, Seth Godin, and Daniel J. Siegel. Originally from Puerto Rico, DeLay has an MA in spiritual formation and has taught in many settings, from graduate schools to workshops. Her work has appeared in several anthologies and in dozens of places in print and online, and she offers spiritual companioning and retreats. DeLay lives with her family outside Philadelphia.
"It's easy to get lost in a dense wood or a big city. But it's even easier to get lost in the tangles of our inner lives. In this book, Lisa Colon DeLay offers some of the best inner-life guidance I know. Highly recommended." --Parker J. Palmer, author of On the Brink of Everything; A Hidden Wholeness; Let Your Life Speak; and The Courage to Teach "Every page of this book pushes you to explore your inner life and gaze upon a God who is able to provide peace and progress despite what you may find. After reading this book, you'll never look at spiritual growth books the same." --Terence Lester, author and founder of Love Beyond Walls "In The Wild Land Within, Lisa Colon DeLay gently nudges us to pay attention to the climate, substance, geography, and topography of our souls--that which affects our spiritual formation from within and without--that we might move toward wholeness. Lisa is a wise and trustworthy guide. This is a much needed contribution to spiritual formation by a Latina woman in the Protestant world. I am incredibly thankful for it." --Marlena Graves, author of The Way Up Is Down: Becoming Yourself by Forgetting Yourself "Lisa Colon DeLay is a thoughtful, discerning, and encouraging guide to the sacred places in our hearts and souls where we encounter the Divine Presence and learn to bear the beams of love. To read this book is to embark on a transformational spiritual adventure." --Carl McColman, author of The Big Book of Christian Mysticism and Eternal Heart "Lisa Colon DeLay is your companion and guide through the landscape of the interior. It is a wonderful journey that not only brings us closer to ourselves, but also helps us engage with our world and communities. During these times of uncertainty, hardships, and even trauma, The Wild Land Within provides a roadmap for navigating the aching of the heart and soul, the yearnings of the mind and body." --Phuc Luu, PhD, theologian and philosopher, author of Jesus of the East: Reclaiming the Gospel for the Wounded "The climatological and geological metaphors in this book were powerful for me. Chasms, fire, still water, wildness--all plunged me more deeply into confronting myself and God in those places I don't often confront or talk about. I was blessed by the dangerous adventure of The Wild Land Within." --Jon M. Sweeney, author of Nicholas Black Elk: Medicine Man, Catechist, Saint and coauthor of Meister Eckhart's Book of the Heart "Lisa Colon DeLay offers a hearty, thoughtful, and thorough approach to navigating the terrain of our spiritual lives. From Quakers to cognitive development, from desert fathers to twentieth-century priests and poets, she details the true journey we humans undertake with God. This book is a gift to the conversation around spiritual transformation in Christ." --Casey Tygrett, spiritual director, podcaster, and author of As I Recall: Discovering the Place of Memories in Our Spiritual Life "In these pages, Lisa Colon DeLay charts a path toward wholeness, skillfully articulating the layers of distortion that limit our understanding, and calling us toward a transcendent, connected awareness beyond our cultural conditioning of empire mentality and exclusion. This is an incarnational, embodied wisdom, inviting us to reintegration through the diligent inner work of contemplative prayer and attentive listening to the wisdom of the forgotten and marginalized--from Evagrius Ponticus to African American and Latinx spirituality. In her writing and guidance through the inner terrain, DeLay bears the marks of genuine transformation from wound to love. This is a profoundly insightful, important, and illuminating work." --Marc Thomas Shaw, cofounder and executive director of Contemplative Light, and author of Dante's Road: The Journey Home for the Modern Soul
