Book details

  • Genre:biography & autobiography
  • Sub-genre:Personal Memoirs
  • Language:English
  • Pages:224
  • eBook ISBN:9798317841706

The Sweet Weave of Light and Life

Stories of Spirit, Place, and Becoming

By John Heller

Overview

"The Sweet Weave of Light and Life" is a memoir composed of stories for a granddaughter not yet born—a living inheritance written across time. Both deeply personal and quietly universal, it is a spiritual autobiography, a love letter, a mapping of outer-world wandering and inner-world arrivals. Drawing from thirty years of work in international development, Heller invites us into the kinetic chaos of Lagos, the stillness of Buddhist practice in rural Thailand, the gritty underbelly of Eastern Europe, and beyond—accompanied throughout by the voices of wisdom holders from this world and the next.
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Description

"The Sweet Weave of Light and Life" is a memoir composed of stories for a granddaughter not yet born—a living inheritance written across time. Both deeply personal and quietly universal, it is a spiritual autobiography, a love letter, a mapping of outer-world wandering and inner-world arrivals. Through intimate stories and conversations, "The Sweet Weave of Light and Life" traces a life lived across continents and contradictions, in pursuit of truth and tenderness. Drawing on thirty years of work in international development, Heller invites us into the kinetic chaos of Lagos, the astonishing generosity of rural India, the gritty underbelly of Eastern Europe, the stillness of Buddhist practice in rural Thailand, and beyond. Woven through the author's narrative are the voices of wisdom holders—from this world and the next—whose insights illuminate how to remain open-hearted in an unsettled age. This is a book about memory, mortality, and the long arc of care. It is for anyone who has ever asked what it means to be human—and how we can pass down what matters most to those who are yet to come.
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About The Author

John Heller spent thirty years in what looked, from the outside, like a career in international development. Inwardly, it was something else entirely—a soul's search for meaning, lived in the company of philosophers, prime ministers, monks, rice farmers, artists, weavers, and healers. Over those decades, Heller worked on some of the defining challenges of our shared humanity—maternal health, renewable energy, sustainable agriculture, indigenous peoples' right, water, sanitation, and child nutrition—across Asia, Africa, and the Americas. He began as a Peace Corps Volunteer in rural Thailand and went on to lead several pioneering mission-driven organizations and build transformative partnerships across governments, communities, and business. All the while, he was gathering stories, heartbreaks, and small awakenings for a granddaughter not yet born who would one day come asking. Today, Heller works at the intersection of storytelling and systems change. He is the co-founder of Clove, a personal growth concierge service, and the founder of Soular Insight, an imagination-driven advisory practice. He lives in New York City with his three children. "The Sweet Weave of Light and Light" is John Heller's debut book.
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