If compromise and disappointment have a home, it is midlife. Here, suffering is like breathing. Longing is like dreaming. Standing midstream in the abrasive forces of life, author N. Thomas Johnson-Medland has learned to wade through the erosion and entropy of failure and incompleteness. And yet, in spite of these massive forces attempting to wear down the very vitality that sustains life, he has come to abide in the fact that life is amazing, wonder-filled, and truly awesome. In this book, Johnson-Medland teaches us that our place in the cosmos is full of joy. Our island is hope. Our vision is beauty. Let these forces do their best to wear us smooth. For in them, we can find refinement and grace. Bathed in Abrasion invites us swim among the abrasive forces of life: wilderness, war, suffering, water--they are all a part of the poems of our lives. Watch for the meter of erosion and decay. Listen for the sound of sloughing off. For just as all things decay, they are also changing shape into a new becoming. Nothing is lost; everything belongs. ""I am quite happy and proud to recommend to you the wisdom and the beauty you will find in this book Our world has need of this."" --Richard Rohr, Center for Action and Contemplation, Albuquerque, NM N. Thomas Johnson-Medland is CEO of Lighthouse Hospice of Cherry Hill, NJ. He is the author of Bridges, Paths, and Waters; Dirt, Sky, and Mountains, Cairn-Space, Entering the Stream, Along the Road, From the Belly of the Whale, Danse Macabre, Feed My Sheep; Lead My Sheep, Windows and Doors, For the Beauty of the Earth, Duende (all from Resource Publications) as well as Turning Within. He lives in the Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania with his wife Glinda and two sons, Zachary Aidan and Josiah Gabriel. Richard Lewis is an award-winning professional photographer whose passion is fine art landscape photography. He is also the owner of Burlington Press, a web design and marketing firm in Burlington, NJ. He and his wife, Vivian, live in the New Jersey Pine Barrens and have raised three grown children, Allison, Elliot, and Greg. His photography is available to view on his website www.richardlewisphotography.com.