Robert Benson - Digging In: Tending to Life in Your Own Backyard

Now this is what gardening is really about! Its not only about getting your hands dirty, but its the experiences and life lessons that grow from the garden. Robert Bensons story is touching, funny, and delightful. I want to see Roberts garden!

R EBECCA K OLLS, host of the nationally syndicated Rebeccas Garden on NBC and HG-TV, author of the book by the same title, and publisher of Seasons by Rebecca magazine

An enjoyable read for seasoned and beginning gardeners. Robert Benson gives people inspiration.

J OHN C ARLOFTIS, contributing editor, Garden Design magazine

Digging In is a classic of gende memoir. I will never look at a garden in the same way again, and neither will you. This is Benson at the top of his game.

P HYLLIS T ICKLE, author of more than two dozen books, including her latest, The Night Offices, and The Divine Hours series

When one is alert to the tenderness of ordinary thingsfinches and fence posts and fish friesand when one has a way with words, one is likely to pen books that invite a reader to consider her own ordinary life anew and honor the hidden arts of tending and nurture that gende our world. Robert Benson does just that in Digging In.

W ENDY M. W RIGHT, professor of theology, Creighton University, and author of Seasons of a Family's Life and Sacred Dwelling

'Digging In is thoroughly wonderful. Benson's writing is spare, simple, understated, always faintly humorousand very forceful without seeming to be. As he writes about digging holes for a fence and growing roses, he also uses his spade and shovel to turn over the readers heart. Before you know it, you are in that garden, invested in its development, and strangely affected by roses you've never seen and a fountain you've never heard. The book delivers what it promisesit digs deep.

P AULA D'A RCY, speaker and retreat leader and author of several books, including Gifi of the Red Bird, Sacred Threshold, and Song for Sarah

Charming, unique, poignant, special, and dear describe this remarkable little book. In reading these pages, I feel as though I'm being given permission to look through Robert Benson's window. What I see touches me deeply: love, life, creativity and dreams, growth, humor, hard work, beauty of the earth, blossoms, contemplation, and delight.

M ACRINA W IEDERKEHR, OSB, author of The Song of the Seed

Robert Benson reminds us of what we too often forgetthat the ground we walk upon is sacred. With the creative eye of a novelist and the playfulness of a poet, he tutors us in the art of really knowing the place where we live and celebrating the wonders in our own backyards.

F REDERIC and M ARY A NN B RUSSAT, coauthors of Spiritual Literacy and directors of SpiritualityandPractice.com

Bensons tone remains chatty and down-to-earth, and the analogies he draws hit the mark.

The New York Times Book Review

Benson writes mellifluously with original insights and welcome humor. [He] captures a world in which time slows down and material things become of less importance. Charming and elegantly writtenthat rare gift, a thought-provoking record of his own spiritual quest. Willa Gathers phrase 'Thy will be done in art as it is in heaven could serve as an epigraph to [his] fine work.

Publishers Weekly

The authors language is graceful and his ideas graced.

American Benedictine Review

A joy to readso personal that the reader will feel he knows Robert Benson as an old friend. It is disappointing to awaken from the text and realize otherwise. The characters and locationsbecome a meditation and talisman for a deeper existence.

Bookpage

An eloquent, warmhearted guide to enriching our lives

FORBESBOOKCLUB.COM

Bensons deceptively sneaky storytelling sneaks up on you. His stylea fusion of gentleness, raw truth, and quiet power.

N IKKI G RIMES, award-winning author of Bronx Masquerade

In looking at his life with candor and hope, Robert Benson helps us to look at our own. His words have the ring of truth.

F REDERICK B UECHNER, acclaimed author of more than 30 novels and nonfiction books, including his latest, Secrets in the Dark

Robert's Benson's prose delights the ear like poetry. He gendy guides readers toward a life in which simple duties take on divine significance.

L IZ C URTIS H IGGS, award-winning, best-selling author of more than 25 novels and books, including her latest, My Hearts in the Lowhnds

Refreshingly candid, funny, and deeply serious.

KnoxvilL News-Sentinel

A sort of contemplative bask This memoir is like a beach towel left on the cabana clothesline, lifting in the tropical breeze, calling less attention to itself than to the prevailing winds which point one wise man toward another way home.

The Nashville Scene

[Benson's] easy prose, artful story, and theological sensitivity combine to invite usto the Story.

Relevant magazine

Again and again, Robert Benson speaks to my heart.

L UCI S HAW, writer-in-residence, Regent College, and author of numerous books and eight volumes of poetry, including her latest, What the Light Was Like