Saint Catherine of Siena's skull was the size of a three-year-olds when she died at the age of 33. She had starved herself throughout her life in order to live up to her perfectionist ideals. Girls and women (and some men) continue to do this today, although their idea of a perfection may be somewhat different than what Catherine had in mind.

Perfectionism causes much anxiety in our culture: we feel we are not good enough, so we skip meals in order to be thinner; work longer hours to be better at our job; we train excessively in the gym, so that our bodies will be buff; and so on. We are burdened with a sense of always missing the mark. As a result, we can't relax. There's always something more to do in order to achieve perfection.

In Chapter One of her new book, Arousing the Spirit, Susan McCaslin looks at our culture's myth of perfectionism and offers a provocative, alternative perspective. Embrace the imperfect, she says, and bring joy to what you do, however you do it.

In other chapters, McCaslin, best-known as an award-winning poet, writes about fear and unconditional openness, mystical awareness, transforming our shadow-selves, and the beatitudes as Jesus really meant them to be heard. She engages the Jewish interpretive tradition of midrash to reveal Revelation, and divests Jesus of his sappy Hollywood persona.

Real and relevant, Arousing the Spirit highlights the Spirit's activating powers in a way that will appeal to anyone interested in spirituality (be they religious, Christian or otherwise).