Seven years ago I began taking notes and collecting provocative stories of men, their questions about the purpose and meaning of their lives. After fifteen years of hearing thousands of men's stories a consistent theme emerged: men desire to be soulfully engaged in their lives, to live in passionate spiritual and heartful service to something larger, something that connects them to the essence of human nature.
It became apparent that many of us moderns felt a profound emptiness in our lives that could not be filled by more possessions, but could only be soothed by a certain kind of meaning, an authentic connectedness to life. So often, under all of the discomfort, the inner and outer voices competing for attention, arose a simple age-old yearning to love and to serve the world in some heartful way. This book, more than anything, is an attempt to show some of the ways ordinary men have looked for and found meaning in their lives.
Writing this book has been a step along my own path to meaning, and has been served by the kindness of my friends and family. Four years ago James Churches came to me at a retreat and said he knew I was working on a book about men, their heart and soul lives. He offered his services to help get the book out into the world, himself being a dedicated writer and editor.
James became the mid-wife that helped this book be born, bringing the loose ends together in to a manuscript that blended our styles. His soul life and mine are entwined in these pages, and in the lives of the beautiful men whose stories have been told. Thank you all and blessed be...
-- Jeffrey Duvall
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