The Spiritual Life of Animals and Plants
is a delightful little tome of true stories told from the sensitive viewpoint of musician Laurie Conrad. These stories -both delicate and astonishing- describe a metamorphosis of awareness that embraces, at times, no less than divine healings and miracles. Lovers of animals and plants have often suspected what this book at last confirms in print: that animals and plants, trees, birds, bees and even bugs are all spiritual beings.
Reviews:
A uplifting collection of stories, sure to bring a smile to your heart.
New Age Journal
If you've ever wondered if animals and plants have souls, then you will love reading Laurie Conrad's
The Spiritual Life of Animals and Plants. Her stories, sometimes wistful and lighthearted are always insightful.
By the time I had completed reading Laurie Conrad's book, I felt grounded in the knowledge that plants and animals do indeed lead spiritual lives and that as caretakers of our earth, we humans have an obligation to live more consciously of all the soulful creatures who exist within this realm.
Jeni Mayer
BODY MIND SPIRIT Magazine
What a unique collection of stories!
Carol Kline
Co-author, Chicken Soup for the Pet Lover's Soul
Chicken Soup for the Cat & Dog Lover's Soul
These are touching stories, written by an extraordinary person.
Katy Payne
Author, Silent Thunder: In the Presence of Elephants
Clairvoyant, music teacher and psychic healer Laurie Conrad has written a charming and engaging book about her often miraculous experiences of prayer and healing with her numerous cats, dogs, and other fauna and flora. The book is disarmingly simple...yet powerful and believable...
Alternative Culture Magazine
Laurie Conrad is a concert pianist and composer living in Ithaca, New York. As a Divine Healer, she heals people as well as animals and plants, and is a member of the Distant Healing Network’s (DHN) emergency team.
About the Designer/Illustrator
Diana Souza is a graphic artist whose artwork has been on bookshelves since 1983. Her work can be seen a
www.art-temple.com
Laurie and Diana have been creative collaborators for seventeen years. They co-produced many episodes of a long-running series on cable TV called Paths to Spirituality and have been fellow contemplatives since 1984.
Shortly after my grandmother''s death, my mother sent me a small statue of Saint Anthony holding the Infant Jesus that had stood on my grandmother''s dresser for as long as I could remember. I suspect that I inherited my clairvoyance from my grandmother, for she used to stand before this small statue and say that St. Anthony''s expression changed from day to day –some days he smiled at her, and other days he looked sad. My grandmother was an artist, she did needlepoint drawings in bold, brilliant colors. She also told many stories of her life in France ...how the children ran into the basement as the bombs fell, and ate jams and jellies while their parents stayed in bed on the second floor, too wearied by war to disturb another night''s sleep.
...her younger sister Marguerite who played piano for the silent movies, who ran onto their balcony and sang La Marseilles full voice as the German troops entered Strasbourg ...how her dear, beautiful mother and older sister had died taking care of the French soldiers in the nearby woods ...historic, truthful tales that enchanted me endlessly, so different from my life on earth ....and she would teach me songs in French and German, which we would sing everywhere, even walking down the street. Near the end of her life she had a favorite tree that she would sometimes talk to on her daily walks. She said that she just had this feeling that the tree understood what she was saying.
This all made perfect sense to me.
In any case, when I opened the package and took St. Anthony out of his travelling case, Figaro single-mindedly came into the kitchen and climbed into my lap. He sat there gazing at the statue, and then very slowly and very, very, very gently put his paw on St. Anthony''s heart. He left it there for quite some time and then looked at the statue for a few more moments, jumped down and went back to whatever he had been doing.
I open packages often, I receive all sorts of presents and scores and catalogue orders in the mail. Figaro was used to such things, I made no new noise or unusual motions with St. Anthony''s package; the string was cut with scissors and the tape was cut with the same knife I always used to open boxes. No, Figaro was drawn by what was in the package, before he could even see the contents, for he was in another room.
When I meditate or pray, often Figaro puts his paw on my heart. How would he know where St. Anthony''s heart was –I doubt by sight, non-clairvoyant sight. No, he put his hand where he always does, where the Love is emanating from. Even I cannot pinpoint where the Love, the Divine Presence is located in a statue. I feel the Divine Presence, the Divine Love as it enters and surrounds me, but I cannot see it coming from any particular place in the statue. Yet little Figaro, who can''t even open his can of Purina cat food can.