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Don't Call Me Old, I'm Just Awakening
"...[P]ioneering author Sinetar once again helps define the leading edge of discourse... as a boomer wave of millions begins arriving on the shores of later life. ... Her simpliclity is deeper than it looks... {and she} poses for popular understanding questions no policy-maker or aging American will be able to duck during the next 25 years."
-Publishers Weekly, June, 2002
Spiritual Intelligence: What We Can Learn from the Early Awakening Child
"Forget your old, outdated ideas about I.Q. In the future, the most successful people will tap into and use their spiritual intelligence. More precisely -- the most successful people always have."
In these times of unprecedented social change, when almost every technology advance unravels our cherished certainties and traditions, when chronic cell-hone buzzings, web-site searchings and channel-zappings interrupt our enjoyment of the moment, Spiritual Intelligence by Marsha Sinetar (Orbis Books; March 2000; $18.00 hardcover; ISBN: 1-57075-231-1) gives us reason to rejoice.
Sinetar's gentle, reassuring voice steers us back to the unchanging truth within, where all is timeless and still.
In the same calming, confident voice that has endeared her to millions, educator, prolific author Sinetar introduces us to children who are on fire with traits of spiritual intelligence, children she calls "early awakeners," live-wires who are characterized by ... heightened sensitivity, empathy and inner-direction; acute focus and intense interest in selected areas; and learning all the time.
Spiritual Intelligence levels the playing field of spiritual awareness. The author democratizes what once seemed the specialized domain of an elite few. She does so by sharing simple stories of uncomplicated, young children (some of whom became famous adults) who are ablaze with the traits of spiritual intelligence. Through her rich mix of stories, personal narrative and direct experience from her own childhood and, later, her days in public education, Sinetar acquaints us with a master pattern of Spirit at work as intelligence, thereby offering us an inspiring, yet completely practical blend of inspiration that... takes us back to our own childhood, when we were most aware and innocently open to the leadings of intuition and wisdom's teaching; discusses how specific attributes can enhance spiritual intelligence in anyone; and suggests ways to raise our own spiritual intelligence, no matter our age or background.
Reviews
" ...As parents and teachers there is a lot we can learn from the way children bring to life what is best and most fully human in their hearts. Libraries and bookstores will display Sinetar's book [Spiritual Intelligence, Orbis, 2000] in two different subject headings: "Spirituality" and "Parenting." Her message adds a very practical slant to both subject headings (and to today's gospel reading). It can be stated this way: Whenever we see and appreciate the spiritual gifts in our children, we enrich our own life with wider horizons and renewed optimism. This is the kind of spiritual vigor Jesus is talking about when he urges us to 'receive the little ones."
- The Faith Connection, September 24, 2000
"Marsha Sinetar agrees with the poet Wordsworth that heaven seems nearer to us in our childhood. Her goal in this book is to recount the signs of that experience in the young ... and to show us how to recapture or regenerate those qualities in adult life. This thoughtful and uplifting work should attract a wide audience. Highly recommended."
- Library Journal, March 1, 2000
"Marsha Sinetar's most important book since Do What You Love, the Money Will Follow, ... not a book of tips for parents, but a book of insights for every adult. It will help you cultivate your own spiritual gifts and open your mind to inspired thought."
- Delores Curran, Traits of a Healthy Family
"Marsha Sinetar is a bridge between the material, business world and the purest spiritual realms. Her countless, excellent books have shared insights into the possible enrichment of how we can live wonderfully. Spiritual Intelligence is no exception. We all know we are closer to the spiritual realms as children: we have invisible friends, and we sleep, dream, and intuitively know what we shouldn't yet know. That is spiritual intelligence. Child-like intuition is a tool those who focus on and work with can develop to a laser sharpness. Marsha, in her unique way, shows her readers how to develop these skills."
- Michael Peter Langevin, Publisher, Magical Magazine, June 2000
"... I want to share this extraordinary find with you -- Spiritual Intelligence knocked my socks off... I'm carrying it around to encourage people to buy their own copy and delve into it... I show every client at some point in the session -- "Look here, something beautiful" -- I show relatives, friends, colleagues, and strangers -- I just can't help myself. People duck now when I open with, "I've just finished the most amazing book," but Spiritual Intelligence really, really is...."
It is very nearly an every person's story -- at least the inspiring people I see as clients and have seen through the years - my circle of extraordinary women friends and colleagues both men and women - Marsha Sinetar captures the seriousness of childhood's inner organizing, who/what imprinted us as little people and formed us as resilient searchers? How... Spiritual Intelligence enthralled, no -- enthralls me still. This book can be a confident, a prism offering ever so many lights on any given page. New and different with each reading ..."
- M. Quilter, MA LMFT in Spring 2000 Newsletter
"... [ Sinetar] introduces us to children who are "on fire with traits of spiritual intelligence," children she calls early awakeners, live-wires who have three common characteristics: (1) a heightened sensitivity, empathy and inner direction, (2) acute focus and intense interest in selected areas, and (3) they are learning all the time... [she] demonstrates that the tough times of childhood are not necessarily limiting..."
"Spiritual Intelligence begs us not to complicate all of this. Sinetar explains that even the littlest child 'gets it': Virtue, goodness, tenacity, the expression of one's inmost truths - all these traits benefit life, making us a joy not only to ourselves but to others, too..."
- The Light Connection, May 2000
Excerpt
From the Introduction to Spiritual Intelligence
"Spiritual intelligence is inspired thought. It is light, the kiss of life that awakens our sleeping beauty. It animates people of any age, in any situation. In children, that quickening makes boys and girls want to seek out and cultivate their inborn gifts, energies, and desires. This book says let's stay open to that kiss of life. Let's trust in its existence. And more: I say that certain blessed children display such hunger for some sacred idea or truth burning within that they, or at least selected patterns of behavior, can be guides. The young can show us how to express our own spiritual truths. In a nutshell, that's what this book is about.
In the Book of Mark (12:34) we read that when a certain scribe revealed a deep inner knowing, Jesus of Nazareth said he was nearing the kingdom of God. That scribe was inspired. He had 'spiritual intelligence,' the heightened discernment that we often say generates supernatural qualities: intuition, a firm moral compass, power or inner authority, the ability to discern right from wrong, and wisdom. Some children are on fire with such traits, and each chapter explores these qualities.
Decades ago, the rather worldly psychiatrist R.D. Laing acknowledged that 'each child is a new being, a potential prophet, a new spiritual prince [or princess], a new spark of light precipitating into the outer darkness.'
A few children express a brightness I call early awakening: Inspired thought or spiritual intelligence leads [them] to a superior understanding of themselves. Faithful to an inner beat, they reject anyone, or anything, that weakens it. That awakening approaches the illumination long held by the mystical tradition to signify the truth that sets free. This is, as St. Theresa of Avila said, 'a union of love with love, and so subtle and delicate that there is no way of describing it.'
Much like the scribe deemed intelligent by Jesus, these children make contact with their intuitional depths sooner than others. ...Why is this? This book is driven by that one question. In other words, what attributes do children with high spiritual intelligence share? And how do these attributes influence adults?
To answer, I'll explore a mix of traits that prepare children for an entire life of self-respect and creative contribution. Writing as an educator, and sometimes personally -- but not as a parent or a therapist -- I'll suggest why early awakeners flourish in the face of challenge while others shut down, ignore, or reject their life-affirming thoughts."
Sinetar takes away our excuses. No one is too busy to flourish spiritually.
In the early eighties pioneering educator and author Sinetar helped revolutionize the way we thought about work. Now, using her own progressively reflective life as a template, she speaks simply and deeply to those who seek spiritual wholeness. She recasts the ancient spiritual tradition of contemplation for contemporary, highly technological times.
Sinetar, a distinguished spiritual mentor, coaches us in the art of spiritual comfort. Borrowing from her own and others' routine experience, she offers three easy ways to gain an enlightened "balance," namely... manage time, especially how we start and end each day, limit exploitive intrusions while expanding a high, fine spiritual vision; and learn what it means, for us as individuals, to "pray in the Spirit."
Sinetar's ideas improve the quality of life. Firmly yet gently she prods us toward the deep spiritual encounter we truly want. A good spiritual steward, Sinetar inspires us with specific strategies designed to help us enter a state of spiritual wholeness.
Using her own progressively reflective life as a template, the quiet pathfinder says simply and deeply to all of us who seek spiritual wholeness: The time is now. The place is here. We were born to live in steady, radiant communion with the Spirit. Let's not miss our chance.
Reviews
"I AM ABSOLUTELY IN LOVE WITH 'Sometimes Enough Is Enough'. Marsha Sinetar is such an inspiration to me. Her work breathes life into every 'ordinary' moment in such a powerful way."
- Carolyn Craft, Director of WISDOM Radio
"... This slim volume expands on only a few simple principles-including cultivating solitude and inner-directedness, spending time in natural surroundings, and focusing on prayer and meditation - supplemented with exercises for practicing them. [Sinetar's] declaration that 'enough is enough' refers to the many experiences that she believes one must abandon in order to pursue the contemplative life...
Learning to say yes and no clearly, she argues, marks spiritual maturity and provides the elusive comfort that everyone craves. That comfort, she stresses in this concise and worthy manual, is found when 'our enjoyments affirm destiny's call' and 'our material goals...support our spiritual aims.'"
- Publishers Weekly, June 19, 2000
Excerpt
"...Whether we're the parents of two-year-olds or Wall Street bankers or short-order cooks at Denny's, when it comes to the fulfillment of spiritual dreams, state of mind matters more than change of circumstance. Most books that begin with the "mind over matter" refrain discuss positive thinking. But in this book contemplative thought and its benefits are the keys.
The contemplative mode of being is reflective and attentive. It is a state of mind that considers eternal things, [yet] without dreaminess. You recognize that the Spirit undergirds all things, at all times, and your bliss comes from dwelling on that idea and, progressively, living in light.
Put simply, state of mind -- not materiality -- creates your states of harmony, assurance, and comfort. Put simplest, with but a few adjustments you can bloom spiritually, right where you're planted.
I've grubbed around in my bank of experience for some ideas I want to share. I've dug about in memory and in my research files for anecdotes about ordinary people - many neighbors, some friends, some strangers I've met on planes - who are flourishing spiritually. A few go to church. Others are unchurched. A rare handful are cloistered, but the great majority are not. I call the latter 'casual contemplatives.' They are -- we are -- informally, progressively reflective. We share a way of looking at situations and an active life that is contributive by virtue of a daily renewal of spiritual awareness. Paraphrasing William Blake, that renewal happens as our Immortal Eyes 'gaze deeply inward, into the World of Thought.'
Since 1973, my own life has included increasingly contemplative elements: prayer, meditation, the reading and mulling over Scripture. I love solitude and stillness.
Time spent agreeably in nature is precious. I even contemplate as I cook.
Well into adulthood... I revived an old dream with childhood roots. That dream is humankind's aggregate musing about transcendence. It is generic and it is global. The secret heart of people everywhere, of all ages and backgrounds, beats with collective yearning for love, peace, inner affluence - true wealth. Perhaps you've tucked away a spiritual vision of that sort in your own heart. Perhaps you've discounted it as 'just a fairy tale.' If you wonder how to realize your light of intelligence, read on. It is possible to flourish spiritually in a material world."
Reviews
"...eloquent yet practical..."
- Library Journal, November 1998
"Sinetar's goal is to help us learn and live our true vocation by seeing our daily work in close connection with God's work... [this is] not about side issues, [but] offers fresh and rich insights into the central reality of 'family' and 'work.'"
- NIHIL Obstat, 1998
The Mentor's Spirit: Life Lessons on Leadership and the Art of Encouragement
(won Athena Award for Excellence in Mentoring & Publisher's Choice Award )
In the stillness of your heart, there rests an inner image -- the seed of your highest realization. But how do you begin to grow it? In The Mentor's Spirit, best selling author Sinetar unfolds a way of using your innate "spiritual intelligence" to see the world and everyone in it as a potential "mentor" -- a life-affirming source of wisdom, guidance, and inspiration waiting to help you discover who you are supposed to be. True mentors are "artists of encouragement," teaches Sinetar, who constantly stimulate optimism and authenticity and help you discover what is unique about your calling in life, encouraging you to pursue it. These "spiritual guides" are all around you -- if you only know where to look. You will explore: silence as a mentor, and how it can awaken your radical intuitive wisdom; ways to find the mentor spirit everywhere: in nature, in children, in ideas; the myth of the corporate mentor; how to create a marvelous "patchwork quilt" of inspiring influences; and leadership as a link to mentoring power everywhere.
With compelling examples and insights, The Mentor's Spirit shows how to find your own way in life, by opening to the wisdom keepers who are already here to guide you on your way.
Reviews
"Mentoring is not a new concept in business circles, but, as usual, Sinetar (Do What You Love, the Money Will Follow) brings a broader, more original perspective to a familiar theme."
- Publisher's Weekly, 1998
"[Sinetar] strikes it rich again... Her prose varies between translucency and... philosopher Heideggar's style, where just one or two readings do not capture all the inherent meanings."
- Booklist, May 1998
"From the author of Do What You Love, the Money Will Follow, a new work that is equally heartfelt, that speaks to the soul."
- Business Ethics, October 1998
"With The Mentor's Spirit, Sinetar redefines leadership for the 21st Century...repaints the entire landscapes of relationships... has a uniquely exquisite ability to see into elements of life as no one else and then explain them with new shading of how they can be if we all just give our best. With The Mentor's Spirit, [Sinetar] has cemented her role as a key architect of the new millennium's social structure."
- Magical Blend Magazine
"This book is a gift of love. Sinetar, always the approachable articulator of mankind's highest aspirations, has uncovered for herself, and now shares with readers, the source of those aspirations. The Mentor's Spirit, it turns out, is truly spiritual, a divine spark in each of us an needing only recognition to bring it to glowing life."
- JoAnn Ridley, biographer and author of Looking for Eulabee Dix
Excerpt
From Lesson 1: Being Calls to Being
"Pure being is pure power. Being is our most vital principle, our essential, animating life force. As it's said, 'What you are speaks so loudly, I cannot hear what you say.'
Being enhances a mentor's power. Being injects a mentor with persuasiveness. Doing and having are but secondary influences. The great runner Herb Elliot once described his coach Percy Cerutty as 'an oasis in the desert of my lost enthusiasm.' His words suggest that Cerutty's being uplifted and rekindled Elliot's dry, worn-out energy. Being involves our particularity, a potency we garner through simpleness, but not necessarily passivity.
Prayer, meditation, or mindful walks along a lonely stretch of beach are not indolent times. These etch reality into awareness, enable us to see ourselves clearly, as in a mirror. Who has not been restored, had his or her vigor renewed, by such nondoing activities? Whenever the mentor's spirit enlivens the substrata of being, our potential for effective action accelerates.
...
A Personal Story
There was resistance to my promotion to the position of public school principal. In 1972, only two women in our district held that spot. My teaching specialty had been the gifted student, yet from the inception of my career I aspired to broader leadership. Despite a passion for teaching, I had big dreams and was always hatching plans for novel, wide-scale pilot projects, the sort that might affect large communities of learners. The fact that these innovations worked and attracted state or federal funds and were enjoyed by students didn't automatically advance my career.
Once a colleague counseled me, 'Remember, Sinetar, no one likes a smart-ass broad.' Another mumbled, 'Why aren't you home having babies?' Our district superintendent hesitated to promote me. He was endearing. A handsome man - playful, nattily dressed, dashing. Everyone loved him, including me. One sensed good intentions, a generous heart, and he was fair.
It was obvious that I'd unrelentingly demand advancement. Denial was my way of life: I ignored the obvious and pressed on, repeatedly scoring at the top of the shortlist. My superintendent balked for a few more months about promoting me, then gave in. The day he summoned me to his office (supposedly to offer congratulations) he nagged: 'What does a gentle person like you want with this thorny leadership job? Do you even realize what you're getting into?' His questions punctured my bubble of self-satisfaction.
Naive, too baffled to respond, and nervous, I burst out laughing. Then he laughed. Then the tension faded. Did he enjoy his Neanderthal quips? Secretly, did he hope to shock or to test people? Despite his opening salvo, I felt that he liked and respected me. He must have sensed my admiration and affection. [For after that], paternal tendencies and unsolicited advice aside, we got on well, and given a mutual fondness for kidding around, overall things between us relaxed. Although I was routinely summoned downtown and dressed down for some excessive innovation, I was proud to be a part of that management group, going about my job like a broker selling stock in our district's programs. That's how much I loved it."
To Build the Life You Want, Create the Work You Love
"One of the most appealing dimensions of her approach is the high regard she has for the spiritual virtues of vocation, discernment, inner direction, and service of others... Whether you are out of work or interested in reframing your job, this book will speak to your soul."
- Body, Mind, Spirit, July 1995
"Sinetar's prescriptions makes sense. They apply to real life as we know it. Her definition of success is grounded in love and service to others. How refreshing!"
- Praying Magazine, May 1995
God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you always having all sufficiency in all things may abound to every good work. (2 Cor. 9:8)
An inspirational, uncomplicated guest sermon presented by Sinetar at a small Northern California church on a theme that is central to a life of strong faith.
This beautiful limited edition (only 2,000 copies were published, about half of which are already gone) is ideal with and/or instead of a greeting card for friends, pastors and spiritual directors, retreat and seminar reading/discussion sessions and anyone undergoing a trial, a transition or spiritual growth.
Excerpt
From Can You Simply Trust?
"To what extent do we simply trust that 'God is able to make all grace abound'?
That innocent question has needled me ever since I heard a recent story about huge numbers of children who, today, worry excessively. Apparently, these tormented youngsters include boys and girls of preschool and elementary school age who experience more intense anxiety levels, than previous generations.
Their symptoms run the gamut of emotional and physical ailments: sleeplessness and nightmares, fears and diverse phobias (particularly school phobias), and dis-ease of all sorts: stomach aches, headaches, even that mysterious malady that doctors now label 'chronic fatigue.' Researchers believe that our littlest children learn to worry, to feel unsafe, and to distrust their futures by observing their parents worry. This makes sense. That's how we learned, as children isn't it? Remember the first snakes or cockroaches you saw as an infant? I'll bet you weren't afraid or disgusted by these creatures until some adult nearby shrieked and whisked you away from danger. There's often good reason for that sort of adult concern: We don't want our children running out into the street impulsively or sticking their fingers into light sockets. Sometimes, too frequently, we go overboard with caution.
All children learn about themselves and their world by watching what goes on around them. The philosopher Eli Siegle proposed that a tiny infant will gaze out at her surroundings and those around her to understand what kind of cosmos she's living in.
Furthermore, from the moment of birth the 'dear being' is continually wondering: 'What is this world I've come into, and how can I find meaning in it which will make me a greater dear little being than I am today?'"
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