A Window Into the Sacredness of a Life
This is a posthumous collection of the writings of Frances Elizabeth Schoeninger, organized and edited by her husband Douglas William Schoeninger. Part I is a fascinating collection of Frances' childhood experiences in hills of western Virginia in the 1930s and 40s. Her intimate experiences with raising chicks, canning peaches, feedbag fabrics, snow ice-cream, etc. transport the reader into a time and experience long gone for most of us. Frances' sense of the sacredness of life and creation, so evident in her childhood musings in Part I comes alive in a remarkable way in Part II, a midlife experience of a vision-journey into the fluid life energy animating and instructing all creation. Here she searches for words for her deep mystical encounter with the life-light-energy of creation. Part III is a collection of Frances' later life writings, life reflections as her physical capacities were waning. Even as she ponders,"Has my life mattered," she retains delight in creation, God's masterpiece, expressed in a vivid account of a sunset and recalling her longing for the beautiful harmonies and union with God experienced in her vision-journey. Part IV, entitled "Where You will Find Me," honors her best friends, felines, with a sojourn into cat heaven where she will be found upon her passing. The book concludes with a biographical tribute to Frances.