Advanced Reflections on "Rooted: A Spiritual Memoir of Homecoming"
We’re just days away from the pre-sale launch of Rooted: A Spiritual Memoir of Homecoming, and my heart is full—with excitement, anticipation, and yes, a touch of fear.
To offer something so personal to the world is no small thing. This book is a tender unfolding of my story, my lens, my spiritual journey. It is, in many ways, a laying bare. And in a time when vulnerability can feel like an open invitation for scrutiny or dismissal, there’s a certain edge to this moment that makes me catch my breath.
Still, I’m resisting the pull to dwell in fear.
Instead, I’m holding tight to a deeper hope—that Rooted will find its way into the hands and hearts of those who most need it. That it will speak life in places of weariness. That it will be a gentle companion in the chaos, a reminder that the holy is never far, even in the hardest places.
In these days leading up to the release, I’m deeply grateful for the early readers who have shared their generous reflections. These are people I admire, whose lives, words, and wisdom have long inspired me. Their encouragement means the world.
As we approach this next chapter, I want to share some of their words with you. May they offer a glimpse of what’s to come.
(Special shoutout to my friend and photographer extraordinaire, Jennifer Batts, for taking these gorgeous photos of me around the back forty acres of the farm. I’m far more comfortable being on the other side of the camera, but she made me feel completely at ease and not at all awkward!)
“I love this book for more reasons than I can list here. But all of them are related to Christy Berghoef’s grounded humanity, her absolute integrity, her way of hallowing life’s most ordinary experiences, and her capacity to look at life with both a critical eye and a compassionate heart—as when she writes about the mixed blessing called “community.” To say nothing of her lucid and lovely prose. Early on in this book you’ll benefit, as I have, from listening to a writer whose life and work are deeply rooted in the earth. “When the wisdom of the world is foolishness,” she says, “the earth centers me on what is good and right and holy and wise.” If you need that reminder as much as I do in these uprooted times, this is the book for you.”
~ Parker J. Palmer, author of Let Your Life Speak, A Hidden Wholeness, and Healing the Heart of Democracy
“Those of us lucky enough to have known a place and a community well and deeply will recognize all the joys and complications in this book; for others, it will be an eyeopening and heart-opening account of what’s still possible in this country.”
~ Bill McKibben, environmentalist and author of Wandering Home
“Rooted is a love song for place and for renewed connection with land, creatures, family, and community—even when rebuilding those connections feels emotionally fraught. Christy Berghoef’s gracious storytelling illustrates that sweat, love, and patience, when lavished on a beloved place, brings healing to heart and soul. This is a healing we need.”
~ Debra Rienstra, author of Refugia Faith
“There's a lot of madness overheating the world at this moment. I know something sane and savory that will help you survive and catch your breath. Christy Berghoef's new memoir, Rooted, takes you back home -- to childhood, to adolescence, to your first job, your first child, your most awkward transitions, your moments of transcendence and triumph. Christy tells her story in a way that will help you get in touch with your own, and it will help you understand home as never before. Homespun yet beautifully crafted, Rooted will bring healing and a smile to the deepest parts of you.”
~ Brian D. McLaren, author of Faith After Doubt and The Last Voyage
“Scientists can discern where a person grew up by the elements present in their bones. We carry our landscapes with us metaphorically but also quite literally. In Rooted: A Spiritual Memoir of Homecoming, Christy Berghoef beautifully describes what it means to have a deep and abiding sense of place and how the experience of home and homecoming can go bone deep. She invites us to walk with her along the muddy creeks and hardwood stands of West Michigan, catch glimpses of the holy while washing dishes, to kneel and lay our hands on the good earth and feel the power of its healing presence.
Berghoef’s memoir recounts her own spiritual journey as one of leaving an exclusive religiosity, and finding another kind of homecoming in a more expanded, living, breathing faith experience of love made visible in every daily action. Rooted is a testament to the holy and hard, a keenly perceptive woman’s embodied experience with love, loss, and the everlasting, and an invitation to walk through our own histories and homecomings with a sense of wonder, gratitude and grace. Rooted is a gift in a weary world that so needs the spirit this book offers and the wisdom it contains.”
~ Carrie Newcomer, musician, poet, and author of The Beautiful Not Yet and A Great Wild Mercy
“We learn how to love from people who love well. At a time when disregard for the earth and its web of life has been normalized, Rooted tells a compelling, informed, deeply personal love story. Without a shred of sentimentality, it traces one woman’s return to the forty acres generations have cared for and her moments of reawakening to the vibrant life on it, its resilience and variety, and what she learns about how to love it well with a fierce love that grows the spirit, sustains resolve to care for fellow creatures, and teaches her how to protect and preserve what has been given. Some books bless us as we read them. This is one of those.”
~ Marilyn McEntyre, author of Caring for Words in a Culture of Lies
“I’ve always liked how the Bible says we are “working out our salvation with fear and trembling.” It reminds me that true salvation, coming from the root meaning “salve,” is about healing, and it’s not just a moment but a process. This is a beautiful, salvific book by a wonderful child of God on a journey of healing and homecoming. May it encourage you on your own salvation journey, as we work to heal all that is broken in our hearts, in our streets, and in our world.”
~ Shane Claiborne, author, activist, and co-founder of Red Letter Christians
“Maya Angelou says the ache for home lives in all of us. This is true even when home gets complicated, even when we must grapple with who we’ve been and who we’re becoming. Amid Christy’s lyrical, gritty prose, my ache grows stronger. And my hope for all of us to find our deep home rekindles.”
~ Winn Collier, Director of the Eugene Peterson Center for Christian Imagination and author of Love Big, Be Well and A Burning in My Bones: The Biography of Eugene H. Peterson
“Honest, funny, touching, insightful, and richly descriptive. This memoir by Christy Berghoef is a must-read for anyone who realizes we need to take better care of our home planet. That should include everyone. Through engaging personal stories in wonderful prose, this book is a beacon of profound hope. Take up and read!”
~ Steve Bouma-Prediger, Professor of Religion at Hope College and author of For the Beauty of the Earth: A Christian Vision of Creation Care and Creation Care Discipleship: Why Earthkeeping Is An Essential Christian Practice
“In this frenzied, threatening time, many talk about the need to be grounded. And as climate catastrophes impinge on our daily lives, afflicting the poor most severely, many talk about recovering a sacred connection to the earth. When Christy Berghoef returned home to West Michigan years ago, she began living a grounded life rooted to the earth. This book shares the power of her lived experience. It demonstrates Christian faith rooted, not in the head, but in the heart, and with the earth. And she writes with lyrical beauty. What a joy to read.”
~ Wesley Granberg-Michaelson, General Secretary emeritus of the Reformed Church in America and author of The Soulwork of Justice
Book trailers are coming soon!