What Makes You Bloom: Developing Habits to Connect with Your Divine Self
kevin miguel garcia
Issuer hardwood book in 2024
218pp / $19.79 / 978-1506493589
When we discover what makes us blossom, can we become more caring, loving, and grounded people? I can’t think of anything more we need in 2024. In this refreshingly honest book, Kevin Miguel Garcia invites us to experience our divine selves. what makes you bloom.
This is my first meeting with Kevin, but it’s clear they’ve been in this relationship for a while. They have master’s degrees in practical theology from Columbia Theological Seminary and work as spiritual recovery coaches, mystical theologians, speakers, and podcasters. Their tech-savvy approach provides spiritual wanderers, especially those who find themselves an exception to their faith community’s “all are welcome” message, with practical and accessible access to healing and wholeness. provide an easy path.
Kevin begins with an invitation to a so-called “spiritual refugee camp outside the walls of empire” (p. 3). They share stories of being rejected and ostracized from their faith communities and jobs after coming out as queer Christians. They don’t discount the heartache, but they don’t stop there. The focus and message that resonates throughout the pages is that healing is possible, peace is accessible, and love and joy exist. They ensure that each of us has daily access to what allows us to flourish by “creating a living practice” (p. 16).
As we begin to explore the practices they recommend, Kevin calls us to “strike naked spiritually” (p. 19). Their provocative playfulness with language creates room for endless exploration. Kevin writes with tender awareness of the trauma of rejection, while simultaneously creating a healing playground for the spiritually curious.
Each chapter is filled with stories, reflections, and simple practices such as “mantras for sadness and other things you don’t want to feel,” “things to think about,” and “things to try.” Go to the Altar of Sorrow, take a sound bath, and meditate for a minute on the hour. ” “Mantra” may not be a word we often hear in the Christian tradition, but it is simply a word or phrase we choose to meditate on, and it is sacred to us.
When considering new spiritual practices, they say, “Stop asking whether a belief is true. Ask whether it is useful. Good theology is only good by being useful, and the best kind of theology is practical” (p.14). Although this seems like a simple practice, its impact is profound.
Looking back on my faith journey, I immediately found myself thinking, “Is that true?” space. In conversations with my Christian friends, I often hear, “But the Bible says…” to justify beliefs that do more harm than good. What if we instead asked, “Is it life-giving?” Is it soothing? Are you kind? Is it loving? Are you kind? Is it dignified? ”
In the chapter “Feeling Your Way Home About Practice, Rhythm, and Self-Control,” Kevin shares a story about attending Promise Keepers when he was 10 years old. They learned early on to distrust the body and its impulses and to learn self-control and discipline. They discovered a long list of prohibitions regarding sex, alcohol, swearing, pornography, smoking…as if these were the keys to the kingdom. Kevin reflects later in the book:
In Western culture, we learn that it is not the actions we do, but the refraining from certain actions that makes us holy. In this way, we become people who pray while thanking God that we are not like those sinners. It creates a narcissism that flaunts humility (p.177).
I wish this didn’t feel so true to my inherited faith. Growing up, we had many lines of purity drawn regarding appropriate and inappropriate behavior, creating a sense of fear and danger in our skin. What would happen if we focused more on the loveliness, the inherent worth of our bodies, rather than our sinful nature?Kevin, in the words of Mary Oliver: It reminds us to love what the soft animals in our bodies love.
Throughout this book, Kevin focuses on self-care practices. “If we want to heal the world, we must first heal ourselves” (p. 96). We see this same theme repeated frequently in the field of mental health and healing. Laura McCann says, “It’s not your fault, but it’s your responsibility.” It’s an attitude that is both life-giving and empowering. Kevin explains that part of this healing involves being “radically honest” about our needs. They are “delicious human beings” and make us “collaborators with the rest of creation” (p. 107). What a beautiful and inviting approach to healing ministry.
When I finished reading Kevin’s book, I wondered what the church would look like if we had more voices like them. I wonder if my son and his friends would have felt more connected and a sense of belonging to a faith community like the one Kevin envisions. And I wonder what healing would happen if we stopped to listen to the stories told by those we least understand. We may discover what makes us bloom.
