FAITH NEWS SERVICE – In the miracle of Life and our living of it we feel a Call; intimation of a Vision. In faith and trust we believe this is God’s vision, God’s Call on our life.
Yet…we also know that it is like to want to give up. We have dreams and desires, things for which we have longed and prayed, yet which, as we live and pray, seem elusive, even unreachable. We age… time is running quickly… and yet, God calls.
We are drawn by hope, and this new book is a story of pushing forward in hope, faith and trust. Thus to Fling Her Soul is New Zealand-based author Jennifer De Leon’s story of hope, faith and trust. It is written from the perspective of a woman who understands how you may feel in your own Journey.
Through facing enormous challenges, Jennifer, a former ballet dancer who has received distinguished recognition both nationally and internationally, has written her book to encourage readers to not give up.
Thus to Fling Her Soul is about performance, age, brokenness, vulnerability and ‘the Call.’ “My goal with this book is to inspire hope – offering a vision as to how life with age, injury, pain and vulnerability can be lived not just satisfactorily, but abundantly – vividly,” Jennifer states.
“It speaks of alternatives to giving up. It speaks of being an artiste, knowing a ‘Call,’ being broken, old – and not giving up. This book is for all we who are aging, know pain, loss, despair and yet, are drawn by a Call to not give up.”
Thus to Fling Her Soul is partly autobiographical: the journey of a performer with a breadth of experience. It is also deeper than that. Simultaneously a practicing choreographer and dancer, Jennifer is a writer with a bent to the academic. Holding several degrees, including a Masters’ Degree with first class honors, Jennifer explains how she includes theoretical research in her writing, using a hermeneutical, phenomenological-investigative approach, drawing on her PhD work and recommending how her work can contribute to ongoing research.
“My rationale for this is because it supports my story about how and why, despite age, injury and pain, ‘flinging the soul’ is a worthy alternative to giving up” and “Whilst growing old, pain, vulnerability and the Call are not uniquely mine, we all, universally, have personal experience of these.”
Jennifer’s personal journey has included an extreme road accident, a death, and she has undergone two hip replacements, one shoulder replacement, a knee replacement, and metatarsal-foot reconstruction, all within a life of high-level dancing and performing.
It has been no mean passage.
She says, “By faith in God I dance, by His grace I live.”
Thus to Fling Her Soul is about practice, artistic insight, inspiration, aging, grit, and living fully in the liminal space between this life and what lies ahead. The market for this book is we who, rather than succumbing to the inevitable aging, injury, pain and crumbling of the body, instead do the journey with a Will that might waver, flicker, tremble, but does not disappear. For it is by God’s grace.
If you have felt some sense of the Call, have known the challenge and pain of the pursuit but have not – will not quit, then this powerful book is for you. United in our setbacks, formidable, various and curious, Thus to Fling Her Soul is a call to arms! Along with age, injury and pain, let us ‘fling the soul’ – it is the alternative to giving up.
Thus to Fling Her Soul is now available globally.
