Starcross Monastic Community, Sonoma County, California - Caring for Children around the World

"Thinking With The Heart" by Tolbert McCarroll

The publisher says: “In his new book, award-winning author Tolbert McCarroll shares his lifelong quest for the sacred with spiritual seekers who wish to rediscover their ancient faith traditions yet go beyond the official church and religious hierarchy.

"There is an old official path across the meadow of our spiritual heritage and it is still recommended by some," McCarroll writes. "That old path is worn out and not very inviting to most people. But, the meadow itself is fresh and vibrant, always growing and changing. It would be a tragic mistake to abandon the meadow when we reject the old path. There can be many new refreshing paths into this magnificent landscape."

So begins this beautiful exploration of the common legacy. But even more than an exploration, it is Tolbert McCarroll's spiritual will and testament to us, we who are seekers of the divine.

Brother Toby's new book is being called ...

"A Most Remarkable Spiritual Memoir ..."

"Thinking with the Heart is a book rich in honesty, insight, and compassion. Calling it his 'spiritual will and testament', Tolbert McCarroll - monk, scholar, therapist, adoptive father, and incorrigible lover of life - offers wisdom gained during his remarkable 70-year journey to all who are seeking a spiritual path through the thickets of the twenty-first century. It is a book that can make our hearts more tender, more discerning, and more capacious."

PARKER J. PALMER, author of Let Your Life Speak: Listening for the Voice of Vocation and The Courage to Teach: Exploring the Inner Landscape of a Teacher's Life

"Brother Toby ... teaches us all how to look through the broken window at the stars."

PAUL MONETTE, author of the National Book Award-winning On Becoming a Man: Half a Life Story

Tolbert McCarroll, "Brother Toby", is the author of eight books, including Notes From the Song of Life and Childsong, Monksong. He is a monk/parent at Starcross, a small monastic community in Sonoma County, California.

A former attorney for human causes, he still frequently ventures forth in response to children in need. The adoptive father of three teenage children, he has established homes for children oppressed by the AIDS pandemic in California, Romania, and Uganda.

Books from Starcross