Heart’s Oratorio

“Slipping out of coma, wresting erasure, I enter stuttering awareness. The last thing I clearly remember is standstill. My fiancé David and I at the very back of the airplane. Late. Worried that we may not make our connecting flight. Enclosed space, forced air, standing in the last row. The clatter of overhead bins opening. Fellow passengers reaching for their baggage. Unheeded requests from flight attendants to allow those with connecting flights to disembark first. Standing still, the weight of my overloaded backpack, its straps digging into my shoulders. The press of people into the aisle, people and their bags ahead of us. Delay. The Next thing I know…blear and blur—black pulsating void dissolving as I am drawn into the sounds surrounding me…”

A memoir about life (and near-death) with a genetic heart condition. This book is composed of many voices: physical and metaphysical; medical and mystical. It’s a love story, a heroine’s journey and a medical drama that explores the fragility and resilience of the human heart. The journey portrayed reconciles the author’s family heritage of natural healing and the conflict that arises between a holistic and spiritual orientation with Western technology.

This literary nonfiction narrative weaves between personal and mythic realms, depicting a mother’s love for her children at risk and a woman’s love for a man who stands by her in the darkest hours. “Heart’s Oratorio” provides examples of the miraculous, offering hope to those dealing with chronic and life-threatening illness.

About the Author

Mary Oak’s work is rooted in a love for the living Earth and a spirituality that draws from many sources. She is on the core faculty of Sound Circle Center in Seattle, where she teaches creative writing, storytelling, and nature awareness. She also works one-on-one as a writing guide. Mary holds a degree in Mythopoetics and Sacred Ecology, and an MFA in Creative Writing, both from Antioch University. She is a seventh-generation homeopath, working in a wide range of healing modalities. One of her deepest joys is having raised three sons and a daughter. She lives with her husband, David Fries, in Seattle.

Robert Sardello, PhD, is cofounder (with Cheryl Sanders-Sardello, PhD, in 1992) of the School of Spiritual Psychology. At the University of Dallas, he served as chair of the Department of Psychology, head of the Institute of Philosophic Studies, and graduate dean. He is also cofounder and a faculty member of the Dallas Institute of Humanities and Culture, as well as author of more than 200 articles in scholarly journals and cultural publications, and is a former faculty member of the Chalice of Repose Project in Missoula, Montana. Having developed spiritual psychology based in archetypal psychology, phenomenology, and the spiritual science of Rudolf Steiner from more than thirty-five years of research in this discipline, as well as holding positions in two universities, Dr. Sardello is now an independent teacher and scholar, teaching all over the U.S., Canada, and the U.K., as well as the Czech Republic, the Philippines, and Australia. He is a consultant to many educational and cultural institutions and a dissertation adviser at numerous academic institutions. He is author of several books, including Facing the World with Soul; Love and the World; Freeing the Soul from Fear; The Power of Soul: Living the Twelve Virtues. and Silence.