SpirituallyFit.com - More about the authors

More about the authors

LARRY MILLER: "Author Larry Miller wrote one of the first popular books on the connection of mind and body to improve performance, Holographic Golf: Uniting the Mind and Body to Improve Your Game. Exploring the "Zone", written in collaboration with best-selling author James Redfield, expands on Miller's previous work.

We have all had times, either in our professional or personal lives, when we felt creative, energetic, and capable of handling whatever came our way. Athletes often reach this state, and much has been made of the connection between mind and body to enhance athletic performance.

This book expands the concept of "the zone". It explains what the phenomenon of spontaneous excellence is and what it can do for any person, whether corporate CEO, housewife, engineer--how any person seeking to improve performance in any part of life can access and prolong the "zone" state, rather than merely waiting for it to happen."

The excerpts chosen for this issue give a glimpse of Miller's principles taught through engaging stories and theories. One particular excerpt, "The Tenth Insight", is reminiscent of James Redfield's The Celestine Prophecy.

"Larry Miller is a master teacher of the mechanical game, and an effective psychologist for the mental game. If you want to reach the "zone", you should study his work."

- JAMES REDFIELD, best-selling author of
The Celestine Prophesy

We thank Larry Miller for his contribution to this issue and granting permission to feature these excerpts. We also thank our good friend, Bill Franklin, for introducing us to Larry.

ANDREW COOPER: In search for another spin on the zone we learned about Andrew Cooper who has spent much of his life practicing Zen Buddhism, T'ai Chi, and studying the world's philosophies and religions. The title also grabbed our attention: Playing in the Zone - Exploring the Spiritual Dimensions of Sports.

Playing in the Zone serves as a wonderful complement to Exploring the Zone with Cooper looking at sports from a monastic point of view and validating and explaining the role of sports in a spiritual person's life. In comparison, Larry Miller is a professional golfer explaining the importance of not just honing your stroke or pitch or the mechanics of any sport, but, more importantly the need to hone your spiritual skills. In essence, what we would define as becoming spiritually fit.

These books are essentially essentially saying the same thing but, to two different audiences and in different ways. Reading both books did not distract or take away from the other; in contrast, the complementary material made the reading and intellectual experience richer and more satisfying! Read them both and let us know what you think!

"Playing in the Zone is a fine essay on the spiritual dimensions of sport, filled with both wonder and discernment. Cooper's love of his subject is tempered by his clarity about various excesses, confusions, and pathologies associated with athletic endeavor, including facile equations of sport with religious practice. Sport cannot equal the sacred traditions as a means of cultivating the inner life. But, as this book makes clear, sport does possess its own unique genius for revealing the opening to people the spirit's 'gem-like flame.'"

- MICHAEL MURPHY, author of Golf in the Kingdom
and The Future of the Body

ELEANORA SCARPETTA: Wanting to feature recipes again in our webzine we were delighted to find Eleanora Scarpetta, who not only loves to cook and has a passion for food (don't we all?), but, she also submitted a wonderful story about her struggle to lose weight and how spirituality, exercise and food all play a part in staying healthy and happy.

Since we cyber-met Eleanora we learned that she joined Martha Stewart, on Martha Stewart Living (note: for those of you that don't have or watch TV, this is a TV show typically aired every weekday), demonstrating traditional Italian cooking. We didn't realize Eleanora was such a celebrity! You need to visit Eleanora's web site to find out more details about her, Martha Stewart, Al Roker, and her wonderful recipes and stories.

Thank you Eleanora for submitting your story and sharing your recipes and beautiful spirit!

DAVID ROTHENBERG: Rothenberg returns to SpirituallyFit sharing his latest Terra Nova book: Writing on Water:

Here is a fresh way of looking at one of the oldest subjects there is. Wide-ranging, eclectic, and exciting, the pages contain wild energy. I donšt know of another anthology anything like this.

- Earth

Water links all aspects of our existence. From the politics of watersheds to the romance of turtles climbing up from the sea, from Leonardo da Vinci to Octavio Paz, from murder at a hot spring to the cool facts on liquidation, the writings in this collection flow through all the ways humans encounter this most refreshing of elements.

There is a bit of science, some management plans for the protection of water, and plenty of stories, poems, essays, and photography. Photographers include Cyril Christo and Marie Wilkinson, Sally Gall, Monique Crépault, Helen Ellis, Margaret McCarthy, Jerry Uelsmann, and Adam David Clayman.

PATRICK LOAFMAN: We welcome Patrick back to SpirituallyFit and thank him for sharing these poems from his recent publication, Desert Journal. Enjoy!

From Patrick: "Those Who Stayed Behind" is a poem about taking care of the place in which you live, about stewardship. It's all too easy to give up on a place that has been ecologically devastated than to get down on your knees and plant seeds of renewal.

I wrote "When I'm Away" while camping/working along Six Ridge Trail in the Olympic National Park [of Washington State]. It's a love poem for my wife, Kim."

MARY MORGAN: Morgan has lived on the Olympic Peninsula in Washington State since 1978 when she returned to Port Townsend, Washington after a two year sailing adventure in the South Pacific. It was then she met her mountain loving husband, Tim McNulty, eventually settling on Lost Mountain near Sequim, Washington. Mary spends much of her time as a special education teacher working with families who have young children with developmental delays and disabilities. Being a mother to eleven year old Caitlin is her other full time occupation. Backpacking, hiking and writing are the activities which nurture her spirit.

Morgan's poem, "NaPali", was written after a recent backpacking trip along the NaPali coast of Kauai, Hawaii. This is the second time we have featured Morgan on our site. We look forward to featuring her again!

PATTIANN ROGERS: "Place and Proximity", from EATING BREAD FOR HONEY, brought to mind many star-filled skies on many summer backpacking adventures. As always, Rogers paints of our world like no other. Thank you again Pattiann for contributing to our webzine!

As with all of our published authors, we encourage you to purchase their publications. EATING BREAD FOR HONEY is just one of Rogers' many publications. Enjoy!

AL HARRIS: He's back! Harris is one of our original contributors and has returned with another simple antecdote about "What Speaks to your Soul?".

DEEPAK CHOPRA: In keeping with the theme of "The Zone", we chose to bring you "The Power of Intention" from Chopra's How to Know God.

Thank you Deepak for your support of our webzine. Namaste.