Fairly early on in my blogging career (such as it is), I stumbled across this little known blog called Present Matters. No one else that I knew followed this blog. I had a hard time finding the name of the person writing it. And for quite a long time I was convinced the author was a crusty old man. He sure sounded like it from his writing. He wrote dense, long posts about long dead monks and dusty old books that fascinated me for some reason. I would trudge through the posts which were always well written but sometimes I wondered why they were written. Certainly only a crusty old man would read such dusty old books alone as he was in the mountains of Southern California.

Then the author began to also post some photographs of his beautiful surroundings. I was further hooked. And I also began to post some comments here and there as I began to understand more and more of what he was posting about. I loved the photography and some of you may know that LightHusband is also a photographer (who supplies me with the photographs for this blog :D).

Pretty soon, though, I discovered that the author was NOT a crusty old man, but a lively young guy and younger than me! At first I was embarrassed. But then I realized that no one knew what I had been thinking all that time (until now of course). I was by this time really enjoying his writing and discovered that he was an author for real and not just a blog author. I tried to lure him out by linking to him in a couple of memes, but he was determined to remain quiet and in the backwater. I wanted more people to know about him and his writing because it is winsome and good, and above all I’ve learned so much from reading him.

Patrick draws from such a variety of sources when he writes that it is always refreshing and new. He uses modern (and by that I am referring to the era, not the method of thinking) writers, Reformation writers, Medieval writers and early Christian writers and he’ll use them all in the same piece. He is unafraid of history which makes for very holistic pieces.

So when Patrick announced that he had a book coming out this fall, I was thrilled. I was excited for him personally. After all, now I actually *know* an author. Someone who has a book which is published. That is thrilling in and of itself. I was excited for him because I know that it’s something he’s been working on. But I was selfishly glad for me too. A whole “Patrick Oden” book to read.

Here’s the thing … I know we’re not “supposed” to do this, but it seems that Patrick is drawn to many of the same spiritual streams that I am drawn to … Celtic Christianity, finding God in nature, reading about Him throughout history and the like. This is likely why I find Dual Ravens (as his blog is now known) so compelling. So when Patrick announced, “It’s A Dance: Moving With The Holy Spirit.” I was pretty thrilled and thought, “Dang. November 1 is a long way away.”

Then he invited me to read a pre-publication copy of the book. So I am one of the lucky few to be able to read this book *before* November 1. And, it is everything I hoped it would be. Tomorrow … a review of It’s A Dance, by Patrick Oden.