Meeting in the Margins

Praise for Meeting in the Margins

“Cynthia Trenshaw has nerves of steel and a heart of gold, and she does a superb job of taking readers along with her as she carefully tends to some of the most overlooked and down-trodden members of our society. She steadfastly shines the light of compassion upon the lives of individuals who have fallen by the wayside in our fast-paced mainstream culture, showing readers that underneath the often shabby appearance of each of these individuals lies something else quite unexpected: tenderness, humor, wisdom, even a certain kind of nobility. I recommend her book to all readers who are not afraid to step outside their usual comfort zone and have an eye- opening, heartwarming experience amidst misfits and castoffs.”

BETSY MACGREGOR, MD, co-founder of the Enso House Residence for Care at the End of Life and author of In Awe of Being Human: A Doctor’s Stories from the Edge of Life

“Cynthia Trenshaw gifts us with an extraordinary window into the soul of the marginalized among us. In exquisite detail of both inner and outer moments of meeting on the streets, the reality of presence she evokes communicates through her stories; it sparks our own celebration of that precious sense of presence. Prepare to be deeply touched. Prepare to remember what is truly important in our lives. This book is itself a gift from soul to soul. Through her open-hearted memories, Trenshaw offers us all a most generous and luxurious soul massage!”

RABBI TED FALCON, PhD author of A Journey of Awakening and co-author of Religion Gone Astray and Getting to the Heart of Interfaith

 “A beautifully written, challenging, and thought-provoking book, one that truly leads us to insights and recognitions that make it possible to contemplate a world that works for all. I haven’t seen anything like it. Cynthia’s book contributes to helping us see the world at the margins with clarity.”

MARGARET J. WHEATLEY, founder of the Berkana Institute and author of So Far From Home, Perseverance, Turning to One Another, and Leadership and the New Science

 “Meeting in the Margins is a dangerous book. It will move you, shake you, change you, and leave you with a profound sense that you have been in the presence of the holy. Cynthia Trenshaw’s intention is to do just that. She is a brilliant writer. Simply by telling the truth in stories that she herself has lived, she takes us into touching distance of the poorest, the lowliest, and lost. Profoundly trained in massage, in chaplaincy, in theology, Trenshaw ultimately lays all that down in the simplicity of touch. Touch as sacrament, touch as presence. In hospice, by the bedside of an AIDS victim, and in the Tenderloin district of San Francisco, she kneels (and so we kneel) and massages the feet, the body, the shoulders, the head of an “untouch-able” (who has become ourselves). Doing so, she finds herself touched. And so does the reader. Meeting in the Margins is a powerful tool—it lifts us into hope; it belongs in the hands of all of those who would heal the broken world.”

PAT SCHNEIDER, author of How the Light Gets In: Writing as a Spiritual Practice and Writing Alone and With Others

“Cynthia Trenshaw is a gifted writer, massage therapist and pilgrim who has chosen to journey with those who are the most vulnerable in our society. As a writer, she conveys in vivid and powerful prose the heart-wrenching details of life on the street. As a massage therapist, she feels into their stories and anoints their soul-wounds with compassion and courage. As a pilgrim, she searches for meaning, her own and ours with every encounter. This is a prayer book as well as a textbook for those who choose to journey to the margins of society and be transformed.”

MARY ANN FINCH, founder/director of Care Through Touch Institute and author of Care Through Touch: Massage, the Art of Anointing

Selections from Meeting in the Margins have been chosen for the collection Pain and Memory published by Editions Bibliotekos, Inc.

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