Turn My Mourning into Dancing by Henri Nouwen - Blog Blitz

 

 

Welcome to the Blog Blitz for Turn My Mourning Into Dancing by Henri Nouwen, hosted by JustRead Publicity Tours!

ABOUT THE BOOK

Title: Turn My Mourning Into Dancing 

Author: Henri Nouwen 

Publisher: Thomas Nelson 

Release Date: March 8, 2022 

Genre: Christian, Spiritual Growth, Grief 

How do you find hope in hard times? Why is it important to have hope during difficult times? Turn My Mourning into Dancing will help you survive the difficult seasons and learn how to live a full life in the midst of them and beyond. With practical advice, Henri Nouwen will gently point you towards a way of life that is grounded in God’s constancy and rooted within eternal hope. 

In this updated edition, Turn My Mourning into Dancing discusses five movements we experience during hard times: 

 • From Our Little Selves to a Larger World 

 • From Holding Tight to Letting Go 

 • From Fatalism to Hope 

 • From Manipulation to Love 

 • From a Fearful Death to a Joyous Life 

Healing begins with taking our pain out of its diabolic isolation and seeing our sufferings in communion with all humanity, and all creation. Nouwen teaches us that our little lives participate in something much larger. Turn My Mourning into Dancing is a must read for: 

 • men and women looking for growth and insight on life 

 • anyone going through the grief process and searching for real solutions 

 • anyone who has experienced a loss, betrayal, or hard times 

Everyone grieves differently. It is a process, not a science experiment. Mourning shouldn’t last forever. Do you want the kind of life that allows you to dance even in the middle of the darkest night? Get the answers and find hope within your hard times with Nouwen’s works on spiritual growth.

PURCHASE LINKS*: Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Book Depository | IndieBound | Christianbook | BookBub

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EXCERPT

From Holding Tight to Letting Go

For years I have loved watching trapeze artists. The love began when my then- eighty- nine- year- old

father came for a visit. Let’s go to the circus, we decided one day. That evening we watched five South

African trapeze artists—three fliers and two catchers. They danced in the air! The fliers soared and all

was dangerous until they found themselves caught by the strong hands of their partners. I told my

father that I had always wanted to fly like that, that perhaps I had missed my calling!

I am constantly moved by the courage of my circus friends. At each performance they trust that their

flight will end with their hands sliding into the secure grip of a partner. They also know that only the

release of the secure bar allows them to move on with arcing grace to the next. Before they can be

caught, they must let go. They must brave the emptiness of space.

Living with this kind of willingness to let go is one of the greatest challenges we face. Whether it

concerns a person, possession, or personal reputation, in so many areas we hold on at all costs. We

become heroic defenders of our dearly gained happiness. We treat our sometimes inevitable losses as

failures in the battle of survival.

The great paradox is that it is in letting go, we receive. We find safety in unexpected places of risk. And

those who try to avoid all risk, those who would try to guarantee that their hearts will not be broken,

end up in a self- created hell. C. S. Lewis wrote in The Four Loves,

To love at all is to be vulnerable…If you want to make sure of keeping [your heart] intact, you must give

your heart to no one, not even to an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries;

avoid all entanglements; lock it up safe in the casket of your selfishness. But in that casket— safe, dark,

motionless, airless— it will change. It will not be broken—it will become unbreak-able, impenetrable,

irredeemable…The only place outside of Heaven where you can be perfectly safe from the danger of love

is Hell.

In so many ways, the more we insist on control and the more we resist the call to hold our lives lightly,

the more we have to deny the reality of our losses and the more artificial our existence becomes. Our

belief that we should grasp tightly what we need provides one of the great sources of our suffering. But

letting go of possessions and plans and people allows us to enter, for all its risks, a life of new,

unexpected freedom.

How can we live with greater willingness to let go? Another step in turning our mourning into dancing

has to do with not clutching what we have, not trying to reserve a safe place we can rest in, not trying to

choreograph our own or others’ lives, but to surrender to the God whom we love and want to follow.

God invites us to experience our not being in control as an invitation to faith.

Taken from “Turn My Mourning into Dancing: Finding Hope During Hard Times” by Henri Nouwen. Copyright 2001 Estate of Henri Nouwen. Preface Copyright 2001 Timothy Jones. Used with permission from Thomas Nelson Publishing. www.thomasnelson.com

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

 

Henri J. M. Nouwen (1932-1996) was the author of With Open Hands, Reaching Out, The Wounded Healer, Making All Things New, and many other bestsellers. He was the senior pastor of L’Arche Daybreak in Toronto, Canada, a community where men and women with mental disabilities and their assistants create a home for one another.

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TOUR GIVEAWAY

(1) winner will receive two print copies of Turn My Mourning into Dancing (one to keep, one to give!)!

 

Full tour schedule linked below. Giveaway began at midnight April 26, 2022 and will last through 11:59 PM EST on May 3, 2022. Winner will be notified within 2 weeks of close of the giveaway and given 48 hours to respond or risk forfeiture of prize. US only. Void where prohibited by law or logistics.

Giveaway is subject to the policies found here.

ENTER GIVEAWAY HERE

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Follow along at JustRead Tours for a full list of stops!

 

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