Reactions from Breathing Space

I was very intrigued when I began reading Breathing Space and I definitely enjoyed the first part we had to read.  Heidi's passion and relentless faith in her city, church, and community are very admirable and I couldn't help but to make comparisons to Shane Claiborne.  Also, similar to Claiborne, I felt her grass-roots movement and ideals behind Transfiguration were very commendable.  I liked when she said how church isn't just a place to find God, but "it was also a place to meet sing, laugh, and eat with one another.  Church was no place for private religious experience. Church was a community."  I liked this because I could relate it to the church that I have began going to where it really does seem like a solid community.  People don't just go there to worship God and as soon as the service is over they leave.  Instead, they get there early, they eat and talk among each other, they sing throughout the service, and there is just an honest feeling of love and desire to be there, while worshipping God.  

I never realized the turmoil that the Bronx was in during the 70's and 80s and I found that to be pretty eye opening.  It is hard to believe that at the time, more children were dying of asthma that anywhere in the world.  Even with the technology and advance medicinal capabilities of the US, it seemed, according to Heidi, that this area of the Bronx did literally turn into the waste disposal of New York.  

Lastly, I could relate to Heidi in the sense that retreats to nature were the best way to find yourself and find God (if one so desires).  There is something about nature that brings a certain element out of you that does not appear, say, in a big city like new York.  Im not sure what that element is but there is something soothing, something that touches the soul when you come face to face with nature in its purest form.  I liked when she said, "Cities seemed too chaotic.  I wanted nature. I wanted intimacy with creation." I liked that, "intimacy with creation."