"The Inspired Heart is artist Jerry Wennstrom’s episodic memoir, beginning shortly before his infamous destruction of his artworks and tracking his spiritual journey to a point where his creativity reconnected with the creative source.

Wennstrom explores the individuals who moved in and out of his life and contributed in their various ways to his profound spiritual experience. He analyses even the most mundane – approaching everything from a point of grace and openness.

In the 1970s Jerry Wennstrom was a prolific artist making a name for himself in New York. When Jerry eventually admitted to himself that he’d chosen a career in art because it was the part of a lost relationship that he loved the most, the realization marked a shift in his thinking.

A number of synchronistic events followed: an aging artist losing his eyesight, a mystical encounter with a wise woman who had asked her god for clarification when her career path suddenly shifted, finding a frame with the canvas cut out of it. Jerry began to realise that he needed to let go of his paintings in order to end the external influences on his soul, and free himself to seek his true internal and spiritual experience. After a month of soul-searching he destroyed his art and gave away his possessions.

At the time a documentary about Jerry’s art was close to being wrapped up. The end of film tied in with the destruction of his work and he was interviewed about his decision. By the time the documentary was screened, Jerry didn’t intend to view it, but serendipitously ended up attending with a Jewish friend and a Middle Eastern lawn ornament seller. He says the screening of the documentary was to be the most powerful night of his life, as he came to understand that destroying his artwork had converted it into an “empowering life force” that would begin to impact the world more radically than it could have done intact.

Wennstrom believes that art is a form of reverence for the source. His early work was reckless – produced one after another like a production line, without stopping to listen to what it was the piece was trying to draw out of him before moving on to the next. As deep as those pieces may have been, Jerry was only connecting with them superficially.

For the most part Wennstrom reserves judgment and analysis of both his own and other people's actions and life journeys, and doesn't attempt to solve the world's problems by suggesting an alternative way of existing. Instead he illustrates one person's peculiar and profound experience, with the hope that others can draw inspiration and understanding of their relationships with others and the world.

Jerry’s straightforward, pleasant writing style and the short, episodic format of The Inspired Heart make this an easy read despite the unusual and sometimes intense subject matter. I found it energizing and I highly recommend this fascinating book."

"This is a book that gives a whole new meaning to the term “Starving Artist.” It is for all those who ever wondered what would happen if they cast their fates to the wind and let life unfold as it would. Jerry let go of the illusion we call “control” when he destroyed all of his artwork and walked away from his artistic career to find his unique spiritual path. Individuals among us have always left the tribe to find a different way to see the world and eventually bring that vision back to the tribe to continue our evolution. The information that Jerry brings back could not be more timely as we watch the inevitable shortcomings of excessive materialism."

"This very well-written, full-color illustrated, first-person account of the creation of the re-born Jerry Wennstrom and his marvelous art is a transformational classic, in my humble opinion. When I was given this book, I devoured it immediately. I was humbled, inspired, stimulated, and changed by reading the details and viewing all of the wonderful photos of his remarkable journey. "I loved this book, related deeply to its message, and I think I will likely always consider it one of the jewels of transformational literature."

"Few of us have emptied our cup as completely as Jerry Wennstrom did when he destroyed his art in 1979, and therefore few have experienced as deep a reawakening to the subtle stirrings of the divine in everyday life. It's hard for me to convey how deeply I respect what Jerry shares with us in his book "The Inspired Heart," in his art, and above all in his person. Here is a completely genuine voice of creative spirit."

"Jerry Wennstrom is an artist who works both with materials and with relationships. This book is truly a story of 'pilgrim's progress' told by a man who risked everything to find his true path and the inevitable spiritual gifts that come from helping each other along the way."

"This artist's thoughts and experiences of living on the edge will expand and challenge your vision of life's possibilities. The book is full of daring incidents and fascinating characters, and exemplifies why the spiritual life can be stranger than fiction. Travel along in the 'now' as Wennstrom surfs the waves of life and carries the most colorful people with him."

"In 1979, Jerry Wennstrom, a rising star in the New York art world, intentionally destroyed his paintings and gave away his possessions and money. He spent well over the next decade wandering, seeking, and listening, relying only on his own intuition and an unconditional trust in the Universe to provide for him. In consciously emptying himself of his identity, Jerry was led on an extraordinary spiritual journey and ultimately, a return to creating art. In his new book, The Inspired Heart: An Artist's Journey of Transformation, Jerry tells the story of his metaphorical death and rebirth as an artist and as a man. The Inspired Heart is a self-portrait of the life of a man guided by a desire to connect to the divine, and armed only with an unwavering faith in Grace to sustain him. In sharing the tale of his remarkable survival and his surrender to life experience, Jerry writes that he hopes "to bring the mystery of this survival back to the tribe as a story."

"If you have the patience or the tolerance to listen to what Jerry has shared with us you will know how our wisest healers deal with the people in our world. Each person needs someone to 'listen' to them. Jerry has brought us to the inside of listening. Thank you, Jerry, for your compassion and your true and generous gift of listening and allowing us to eavesdrop. Dahadubul, you have honored each of us with the words shared in this book. These words express your beautiful gift of honoring life in all of its forms."

"In a society where 'everything is never enough,' Jerry Wennstrom's book, The Inspired Heart: An Artist's Journey of Transformation is an unconditional gift. This most amazing story is chronicled with great humor and clarity. Crazy characters crop up around him, but he draws each one into the still point, which he so effortlessly inhabits. Calm and generous to the core, we see how the art form of his life comes full circle. Destroying his early work, abandoning career and apartment, and then wandering without money or regular food, he survives in ways that can only be called miraculous. Jerry's story illustrates the outrageous transformational healing which can only come with a direct and fearless confrontation with death. Ultimately, reborn, he returns to art with newfound passion. He makes us see how everything in this world counts, how everything magically fits into place. As Wennstrom writes in the final chapter, The Holy Fool, 'The personal link to the sacred is all there is when we are fully engaged in our own true life.' "

"I found this book called "The Inspired Heart" sitting around the house and I picked it up and, as I like to do, looked through the pictures. Well, they were certainly spectacularly engrossing in their originality, color, cleverness and beauty. But, then it happened: I saw how painlessly short each story was, so I risked reading one. I haven't returned the book since then. It is wonderful. I started with the chapter "Healing the Bloodline" and it so rang true in me -- in my own experience -- it really touched me. Jerry shares his life with such simplicity and candor. I don't know quite what I'm trying to say, but I felt that if everyone on Planet Earth could see themselves with that same lack of self-consciousness and with that same consciousness of the self, we would all feel closer, and have more understanding and compassion, as human beings. Well, I'm savoring this book and whomever was next on the list to read it will just have to wait (I can't be compassionate ALL the time)!!!"

"This book engages us in a life worth emulation. In Jerry Wennstrom, his life is his art and art his life, a seamless flow from inner to outer expression of light and dark, multileveled, joyously humored and lit with authentic experience of being in service to its source."

"The Inspired Heart -- a needed true-to-life mythic story. Jerry Wennstrom's narrative is piercing and irresistible. His courageous quest for spirit and meaning in a world blinded by consumerism is a modern fairytale to find the source of art and inspiration. His stories invite the fearless heart to open."

"We have in Jerry Wennstrom's work something that is very needed for our current times: a life placed in service of the soul's depth. This surrender to a deeper calling and the conviction necessary to craft a life that supports such a response is medicine for our troubled times. If we could all dip into the wellpsring of creative faith that Jerry has manifested then our world would be a better place. Jerry is an artist that shows us how to have the courage to bring healing to our world. This is one of the highest callings any of can have and we owe a debt to Jerry for helping to guide us on our collective journey."

"In giving up everything - possessions, attachments, even speech and food - Jerry Wennstrom found his true self, and something more: the wellspring of human nature. The Inspired Heart chronicles his journey and the Holy Fools he met along the way. His art reflects that deep level of knowing which links each of us to that part of our nature which is eternal."

"When I first saw Jerry Wennstrom's recent artwork - life-size sarcophagi adorned with found objects which whirred and rotated and wagged body parts - I assumed I was looking at the work of a man of genuine whimsy. Here was an artist, I thought, whose life had been innocent enough of suffering that he could perceive the playful joke in everything.

But then I learned his story. On the contrary, here was a man who came to his lightness the long way around, via loss and devastation. His joyous vision was achieved the hard way, through the willingness to let go of everything that secured him to the material world. I bless him for his burning example.

The Inspired Heart is the story of his journey. It is told in vignettes from his life and in thoughtful commentary on the inner experience as the outer events unfolded. We follow him as he takes that fateful leap into the Void, not knowing from one hour to the next, one year to the next, whether or not he will survive his deliberate deprivation. And then we see him re-emerge after fifteen years, both as artist and wisdom-holder, free from the fear of death and nothingness that most of us carry with us all the time. Indeed, it is this very looking into the Void, Jerry found, that is the source of our freedom and creative power.

What he sought, in this rare and desperate act of renunciating everything - home, possessions, body of work - was the still center which was the Source of his being. He knew, intuitively, that he had to unmoor himself from everything material, and to let go into the uncharted sea - 'the mythic dimension underlying matter,' he calls it. And to listen intently to its whispering song so that he could 'dance with the angels' there.

Perhaps Jerry's journey is our collective journey, too. What we as a human species and society face is one form of dissolution or another, either purposeful or enforced. If we can but choose to deliberately let go of the material restraints that threaten to choke us, we may find our way cleared to the sweet vastness wherein we may live as truly creative, knowing and compassionate human beings in physical bodies in a physical world."

"I highly recommend Jerry Wennstrom’s soul-filled work. In The Inspired Heart: An Artists Journey of Transformation, Jerry beautifully tells simple stories that speak of the charity of the soul, painting pictures of the secret meanings in magical moments and interconnection of all life (and death). His alphabetic canvass speaks the songs of God and how being touched by simple acts of kindness lights the way in a still sleeping world. He provides a guiding beacon through the uncharted waters of our evolution by recounting his life's stories."

"An amazing personal story, chronicled with great humor and clarity. Jerry was a rising star in the art world when he realized he was too attached to his identity. So he destroyed all of his art, gave everything away and spent 15 years wandering, seeking, listening, and trusting. Crazy characters crop up all around him, but he draws each one in with calmness and generosity. In giving up everything he found his true self, and something more: the wellspring of human nature."

"This book is excellent if you want to follow the events of someone’s life that is totally surrendered to the universe. For 15 years Jerry Wennstrom lived and wrote down his experiences as he surrendered bit by bit.

When he saw that his identity was wrapped up in the artwork he was doing he destroyed them all and then began his journey of self discovery. His center was love and surrender. Eventually art came back into his life as well as the world, which continues to unfold in new and unique ways. His is a path of duality-- of the celebration of life. A sincere rendering of his own inner and external journey, which is now still on the road with a shamaninstic bent. Going from celibacy to tantric and shaministic learnings, growing and expanding to include sharing what has been gained. He has had an interesting journey which is still in motion. For anyone who is on this road, this book is well worth reading."

"Autobiographically written by Jerry Wennstrom, The Inspired Heart: An Artist's Journey Of Transformation is the story of an artist's journey in search of truth. In 1979, New York artist Jerry Wennstrom destroyed his own paintings, gave away his money and possessions, and sought to purge his personal identity, and in the process, open himself to wonder. This remarkable artist's memoir is enhanced with black-and-white photographs and a 16-page inset section of full-color plates showcasing a series of magnificent interactive box art. The Inspired Heart is a unique and quite remarkable contribution to 20th Century Art History reading lists."

"In September 1979 Jerry Wennstrom, a successful New York artist, sold his possessions, destroyed his paintings and dedicated himself to God. He became celibate, refused to work for pay and lived as a kind of secular monk for the next twelve years. In the early '90s he moved from New York to Washington State and began to ease himself back into society. He is now married and has resumed his career as an artist.

When you live by faith you enter the real world. That's the gist of Wennstrom's book. The real world is very different from the world as it normally appears to us. The rules of the real world are those of the Sermon on the Mount - you must give in order to receive, die in order to live. In the real world miraculous coincidences happen all the time. You are starving for want of cash and a five dollar bill falls out of a library book you felt compelled to open. In the real world prayer is answered.

Wennstrom tells his story not as linear narrative, but in a series of nuggety little narratives. He encounters street kids, drunks, gangsters, society matrons. In some of these encounters he's the guru and in others he's the disciple. The technical term for such narratives is pericope (hey, I was a theology student once). As religious teachers in every tradition have found, there is no better way of conveying spiritual truth.

The pericopes are great. When Wennstrom tries to glue them together with a bit of theory he loses focus and precision. He's a mystic and an artist, not a theologian and his religious theorising amounts to a cherry picking of ideas from what Malise Ruthven calls the divine supermarket. Sometimes his ideas are hard to follow. Sex makes him come over all coy and poetical and I didn't understand a word he had to say about it.

Wennstrom is a first-time author. When he sticks to the facts he's entertaining and smart. This is a book I enjoyed. Not only that, it got me thinking about my own life. The colour plates of Wennstrom's quirky, spooky and amusing art works are a real joy."

"In 1979, Jerry Wennstrom began an experiment to find out if there was a god. At the time he was a successful New York artist, but he decided to destroy his paintings and give away all his money and possessions. He began to tune his inner world into the natural patterns and rhythms of what he perceived to be the perfect order of the outer world. He asked for nothing from any human being, relaying on unconditional trust and non-interference. If food became available, he ate, and only if necessary, he spoke. He had to confront his own fears and those of others, but only by fully committing to this way of life on the edge could he create the space for miracles and come full circle to re-enter the world of creative expression through art. This is an account of the true stories that unfolded as he made this transformative journey."

"If you read the blurb on the back of Jerry Wennstrom's autobiography, The Inspired Heart: An Artist's Journey of Transformation, you'd think the man is a crackpot. This truly talented New York painter gave away all his work and his possessions in the late '70s and became a full-time Zen wanderer. He dropped out in order to find himself and commenced to contemplating the universe, often going for long periods without speaking a single word.

Along the way he was groped by a dirty old man, scolded a violent Mafioso, claims he was directed to hidden money by God, invited a street gang into his studio, coaxed a teenage troublemaker into a supposed interlude of clairvoyance and surrounded his schizophrenic friend with a pack of friendly wild dogs. These are the kinds of things that can happen when you leave behind modern hubbub and decide to bob along helplessly like a cork in the ocean. These days, Wennstrom's art resembles life-size humanoids carved from wood, with secret chambers and working machinery inside."

"The Library of Congress categorizes this book as a "spiritual biography," a term I hadn't heard before, but which is quite fitting. Jerry Wennstrom was an up-and-coming painter in the late 70s, when he decided to destroy all his work, give away his belongings, and live moment-to-moment, seeing what the universe had in store for him. The book is made up of dozens of short vignettes and insights about people he met and experiences he had during his 15 years of seeking God. At various points, Wennstrom lives without money, food, sex, racism, talking, time, fear and other cultural items we take for granted as "basics."

In his introduction, Thomas Moore says that Wennstrom reminds us that "being open to life is ultimately more rewarding than trying to control it." Wennstrom is amazingly open to the people he encounters, examining whether they have wisdom for him, whether they be schizophrenic, homeless, damaged, angry, or loving. He rejects the notion that we must keep our distance from others, and allows himself to experience interactions that most of us would refuse to enter, from conversations and confrontations with strangers on the street, to allowing anyone who asks to enter his home. In powerful lessons, he moves beyond embarrassment, discomfort and fear, trusting that if he stays with an experience, the final result will be as it should, often ending in respect and even love.

I like this idea of "spiritual biographies," books to remind us that life is not just a series of events, but a journey with meaning. Seeing how others have approached their own path can help us take the unexpected curves of our own."

"Whidbey Island artist Jerry Wennstrom tells his story of living on the edge and finding his true path. While a successful artist living in New York City, Jerry destroyed his art work and abandoned his apartment, career and all tangible forms of security. For ten years he lived in the present, open to whatever life offered. During his spiritual journey, he lived life from the heart and trusted his intuition. He chose to quit trying to control what happens but to accept what comes. Jerry eventually returned to art. His book includes color prints of his work. At his web site (this Web site), you can see photos of some of his incredible sculptures, though to enjoy them fully you need to see them in person to get the full effect of their wiggling parts, flashing lights, boiling water, opening doors, sound effects and other fun surprises."

"The Inspired Heart is a collection of memories that span a period in the life of Jerry Wennstrom. He describes those life-changing moments that altered his destiny; both outwardly and inwardly.

Going from a philosophy of “Art as God” to a courageous surrender in every moment, Jerry lost his individual artist identity only to discover a co-creation with All That Is.

As I read his book, I found myself questioning my own relationship with my artwork and my creativity. What are my intentions? Where was my ego sitting?

I came to discover that The Inspired Heart is not just a book about an artist’s experiences. It is a personal teacher and a guru that will open the student’s eyes to what the purpose of the creative aspect of life is really about. The book vicariously sets you out to sea without a means of sailing back. But somehow, out there in the middle of nowhere, you discover the meaning and the motivation, and you arrive back at the shore with a plan for the rest of your creative life. Within these pages, you have experienced your own personal parallel of Jerry’s 10-year journey of self-discovery."

"Artist Jerry Wennstrom shocked the New York art community in 1979 when he destroyed his paintings at the pinnacle of his illustrious career. Guided by an inner passion to connect directly to divine consciousness, Jerry Wennstrom gave away his possessions & began a journey based on complete surrender to life experience. The Inspired Heart shares his journal of how he lived for years in a state of grace & faith, discovering divine intelligence & inspiration in a wide breadth of experiences.

The Inspired Heart tells the true story of how one man's trust in even the most seemingly random & chaotic events lead to a deeper sense of wonder & connectedness. Jerry Wennstrom at various times fasted, experienced the sublime joys of sharing special moments with neighborhood children, & faced potential muggers with loving kindness ... to receive loving kindness in return.

Every encounter described in The Inspired Heart shows us how, “Enlightenment is not a grand finale that leaves us blissfully risen, Buddha-like, above the suffering of the world. It is a deep and unconditional surrender to what already exists and total trust in the larger inherent intelligence, which is willing to lead the way.”

I love the color pictures of Jerry Wennstrom's art in the middle of his book, & the way his autobiographical short stories weave themselves in dreamy fashion through the places & times of his fascinating life.

The Inspired Heart shares the raw & simple beauty of one man's pure heart as it shows us how miraculous, magnificent & rich our lives can be when we let go of everything & allow ourselves to be fully present in this moment, now.

Jerry Wennstrom now lives on Whidbey Island in Washington State & has re-emerged with his wildly inventive sculptures."

"He who fears to be foolish will never learn to be wise." -- I Cor. 3:18 "A slave you must be. Either you are a slave for the world or you are a slave for God."
-- Paramahansa Yogananda

"Jerry Wennstrom's book, The Inspired Heart, moves me so deeply that I am tempted to lather my review with lengthy quotations as I struggle with the relative inarticulateness this task evokes in me! Not doing so is the best way I can pay tribute to its profundity and depth. There is a kind of simplicity about Jerry's way of describing the episodes and relationships that have filled his life which reflects the purity of his own inner process as he brings it to bear on the choices he has made and the consequences of those choices - on the people he has danced with, loved, learned from, helped to heal, along the way.

His is no ordinary life, and the fact that he makes it sound so simple, so inevitable, merely reflects his "way" of living it - as does the form of his art. Complex, beautiful, many-layered, hieratic, visionary, somehow ancient in its sense of knowing - these are all terms that apply, both to Jerry's art and to his life.

From his website:
"... At age 29, he set out to discover the rock-bottom truth of his life. For years he questioned the limits of his creative life as a studio painter. After destroying all of his art and giving away everything he owned, Jerry began a life of unconditional trust, allowing life to provide all that was needed. He lived this way for over 10 years and then moved to the state of Washington, where he married Marilyn Strong and produced a large new body of art."

There is an autobiographical substructure to Jerry's narrative throughout his book which functions as an armature for the sculpture that is his real life as a soul embodied - necessary as a support for the emergent sculpture, allowing it to hold its shape - but, like the armature, only the basic shape or pattern upon which the sculpture itself will be fully realized. Manifesting that fullness of its form constitutes the real narrative of the book.

"The Inspired Heart" is most assuredly what has moved Jerry from moment to moment, from year to year, in his art as in his relationships and choices. "In the Hands of Alchemy," the title of a video made by Parabola magazine in recent years of Jerry's life and his art, is an equally accurate description of the manner in which Jerry has learned to live - with no pre-set assumptions about what may need to happen at any choice point, and with trust, openness and humility that his life belongs not so much to himself as to what he calls "formlessness" - which impels him to surrender to a kind of "knowing unknowing" - a kind of holy foolishness that is only valid in retrospect as a living principle but must be "sweated out" on each occasion that calls for a choice.

I think of Martin Luther's "Here I stand - I can do no other" as a kind of spiritual forbear. Luther's "stand" ultimately led him to establish a new religious institution which shelters its members from the wintry blast of what was originally his own aloneness in the presence of God - but Luther himself faced that ultimacy with no such societal crutch. The epiphanies of Jesus - of Gautama - of Mother Ann, founder of the Shakers - evoke the same sacred aura, at once terrifying and exalting. All of them were moved, shaken, changed forever by that same powerful, mystically revelatory experience. There can be no doubt that Jerry's own inspiration comes from an equally deep source!

Jerry expresses his experience of life in the last chapter entitled "The Holy Fool," which begins:
"There is in all of us a Holy Fool, a friend to the soul of our world, often forgotten, or worse, feared. When we make a complete and unconditional surrender and trust the mysterious, unknown void with our lives, we enter the domain of the Holy Fool for God. We become a slave to God, which is as free as we can be as human beings. We are led by the allure of a deeper mystery, a presence that leads to unimaginable freedom."

It is the paradox of the freedom which dwells within the embrace of spiritual "slavery" to God - the "Thy Will, not mine own, be done" prayer inherent in Jerry's moment-to-moment life stream - which both Jerry's account in this book of his life and his extraordinary art works both embody in a style that is Jerry's own, unique to him, yet not in any way ego-based. This is the crux of Jerry's discovery, which he is passing on to us, his readers and his companions. Jerry is basically a teacher - and, like the Sufi masters of the past, his teachings appear in the form of stories - either verbally or in sculptural form. His statues are spiritual biographies, using found materials and serendipitously acquired artifacts. Multi-layered, they express the complexities of human ambiguity and depth - as well as the process of spiritual growth."

"Spiritual food for the soul: Allow Jerry to take you on his magical and enlightening soul pilgrimage. As he invites you to accompany him along his life adventures, he introduces you to selfless acts of deep, human spirit and his fascinating relationships. Often, by chance encounters, Jerry immerses the reader into impromptu stories of surrealistic wonder and actual life experiences. From his friendship with two, elderly sages; or E.T., the street kid - Jerry's autobiography inspires the uninspired, captivates the soul and brings a vital spark to everyday monotony. Jerry illustrates and exhibits the simplest of miracles - through soul journey. His words, "...In the shadow lands of life's most terrifying experiences, something inherently noble in the human heart unexpectedly enters in and renders the voices of good and evil mute..." Poetically expressed, Jerry's wisdomful words echo transcendental advice into the inner-knowing and evolutionary, inner-peace process. Broken down into humankind's most simple form, Jerry withdraws from `normal' human existence to fully embrace life's spiritual side. (His eventful life, in my own opinion, somewhat parallels the life of the so-called Jerry in the film, Down and Out in Beverly Hills.) Noncomedically however, he lived purely off chance and engaged in most uninspiring conditions; and made do with what life had to offer - never complaining...only transforming. A human, but humbling experience, Jerry relays how his internal transformation came full circle. A book that promotes personal growth and comprehension of the mortal experience, The Inspired Heart is awe-inspiring, and an exceptional read."

"Throughout his brave journey, Wennstrom allows us to suffer with him, and in doing so helps us to realize that we all have gifts. When we shed all vestiges of materialism, we are naked except for our strength. If we use what we learn wisely, life has meaning as well as potential. This is vividly portrayed through Wennstrom's strong style, and it is an honour to have travelled this road through his words."

"When I was in my early twenties, I remember understanding well the song by Cat Stevens that spoke of ties and possessions: "Well I ain't got nothing, but it don't worry me, I came to this life like a free walking tree; no need to be tied, no need to be-they call me Jzero." Several times in my life I've been through that scenario, having lost everything-but in retrospect, gaining everything. It gives you a new start.

Jerry Wennstrom was born in New York in 1950. "I don't have much of an impressive bio," he admits. All I could do was paint, and because there was nothing else that I could do very well, painting was what I most identified with as a human being. It didn't hold though. I let it all go, became nothing, and found everything."

After destroying all of his art and giving away everything he owned, Jerry began a life of unconditional trust, allowing life to provide what was needed. He lived this way for 15 years, wandering, seeking and listening, and then finally began his art again, from a very different perspective. His book, 'The Inspired Heart - an Artist's Journey of Transformation,' tells of a life driven by a singular requirement: to remain fearlessly attuned to the heart.

"It was a powerful, holy experience that left me shaken and empty, but exhilarated," says Jerry of the destruction of his works. Free to seek and discover a meaning to his life, Jerry found plenty and writes movingly and profoundly about his journey.

I like to read the last page of a book first, then go back and take my time, knowing how things turn out. Jerry just trusted how things would turn out. Anyway, these are excerpts from the last page, as he sums up...

"We are at a rare time in the history of our world. Consciousness is attemting to come through the spirit of our lives. It brings with it all that we need to live out its gift. At the same time, our old ways of being on the planet are beginning to fail. Our social forms and structures are radically changing and breaking down. Our mother, the Earth, is ailing! We are truly in uncharted territory.

"Perhaps the Holy Fool in us trusts that this, too, is God. The light could not exist except in relation to the dark. When we hold this Fool's vision, we can begin to see that where we stand now is holy ground, perfectly in place under our feet, ready for our next step in a meaningful direction. This unknown, mysterious universe will show us the way that it needs to go!"

And, "A time may come when you are asked to let go of everything you think you are and all that you think you possess. If you can give yourself to this process, what will emerge will be a truer self in a truer world. All that is most important to you, all that seemed to be impossible or gone forever, will be sanctified and returned to you. This is the wisdom of the Holy Fool!" What comes before is an inspiring read."

"Jerry Wennstrom is a rare and courageous individual, with an unusual talent for deeply inspiring others and expanding one's sense of what is possible. A master storyteller and a brilliant visionary artist, Jerry weaves a powerful alchemical magic into his mythic creations. Jerry's faith and openness to the cyclical rhythm of life has brought him a bounty of spiritual wealth and ancient wisdom that he is eager to share. The Inspired Heart is a wise and precious document, revealing the timeless secrets of simplicity and holy revelation. Your perspective of the world and yourself will be forever changed after you read this beautifully-crafted, shamanically-transformative book."

"The Inspired Heart is a magical, insightful and dreamy book with a nice, even, leisurely pace of reading. Jerry's relaxed approach with acceptance towards whatever happens demonstrates the non-judgmental perspective of "The Witness/Watcher." With trust he overcomes fear and follows life experience through, extracting the lessons of each moment.There are genuine mystical occurrences in "The Inspired Heart," as well as many open innocent interactions with children. I found the overall aesthetic of the book to be one of its best qualities, helping attune the reader to a meditative state of being. More than once while reading and after, I saw things how Jerry might. One gets a sense of Tao and the Harmony that comes from a person at peace with himself and his place in the Universe."

"The Inspired Heart by Jerry Wennstrom is a remarkable and inspiring account of one man's journey into complete surrender. We have all read and talked about trusting in existence, and here is a man who stays with that commitment to the very edge and beyond, exploring every angle and corner of what trust can really mean. The fruit of this exploration is transmitted through Jerry's extraordinary art. This is a must read book for every translucent reader."