Hallie Lord (On the Other Side of Fear) shares candid stories of her life and her perpetual search for home and its implications in Dwell, 15 essays that offer a wellspring of enlightened inspiration. Lord is a writer, speaker and the host of a show on SiriusXM. In every medium, she explores concerns about practical life questions, viewing them through a prism of spiritual Christian living informed by her Catholic faith. Her presentation is never preachy--it's faith-based in principle, yet rich in accessibility and appeal.
In a warm, witty, conversational style, Lord shares details about her yearning for a sense of belonging and the "safe haven" home implies. The divorce of Lord's parents early on left her feeling "disoriented and unmoored," and that carried over into her own married life. Lord is a wife and a mother of eight children. Having moved with her own family 11 times in just 15 years, she's had to adjust and adapt to traditional ideas--and revise her dreams--of setting down permanent roots. She shares many anecdotes about each move, relationships forged and lesson learned along the way. Seasons of joy and loneliness, struggles and trepidations--and her reflecting upon them--have helped to reconcile her fate and define the idea of "home" in a broader, spiritual sense. The often bumpy road she travels on the way to finding peace offers deeply felt personal revelations and entertaining wisdom that will radiate universal themes to other faith-based seekers. --Kathleen Gerard, blogger at Reading Between the Lines