Well, hello, everyone. It's Morgan Harper Nichols here. And today is February 1st.

My birthday is in a few days, February 4th. And also February is the month that my new book,

Peace is a Practice, is coming out into the world on February 15th. And by listening to

today's episode, you are getting an exclusive first look, first listen,

I should say, of the first chapter of the audiobook. I am so excited to share this with you

exclusively on this podcast so that you can join me in finding ways to

breathe deep and find new rhythms for life right here, right now. That's what this book is all

about and I'm so excited to share this chapter with you today.

Chapter 1. Peace is a practice. The word peace first caught my attention as a child when I heard

the song, it is well with my soul. When peace like a river attended my way, when sorrows like sea billows roll, whatever my lot thou

has taught me to say, it is well, it is well with my soul.

From that moment forward I associated the word peace with a river, a beautiful yet powerful water course I had

never seen with my own eyes, but it was a place I longed for. Because I struggled to fit in and feel

at home in the world around me, the idea of peace drew me in. I was hungry for the green leaves that sheltered the river and thirsty for the water that flowed throughout. When I learned the story behind the song, my association deepened even more.

Horatio Spafford's four daughters died in a shipwreck while crossing the Atlantic. When he crossed the same

ocean to join his grieving wife who had survived the wreck, he penned the words to this song. He had known

peace to be like a river in his life and sorrows to be like the sea. He had known more than one body of water, and for him they meant

different things. As a young girl, I too associated the sea with sorrow. I learned of the slave

trade that brought my ancestors over the Atlantic. The architectural plans and history books of their bodies lined up below the deck

created a lump in my throat. If slaves grew ill or did not comply with the enslaver in some way,

they were thrown overboard to their death. My stomach tightened at this knowledge. I still can't

look to the Atlantic Ocean without thinking of them.

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