San Antonio, TX, Dec. 08, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Tzedakah boxes are utilized in the Jewish religion to collect coins meant for charity. Michele Maxwell is not Jewish but was drawn to the box spiritually and filled it with a priceless gift she is now sharing with the world.
The poet purchased a tzedakah box sheerly for its beauty—the way it fit perfectly into the palm of her hand, the gold-inlay Hebrew characters that spelled “charity,” the delicately carved Star of David resting on the lid. Drawn to the box like a force of nature, Maxwell filled it with small slips of paper that boasted single words illustrating some of her life’s best memories and learning moments.
Over 200 slips of paper found their way into the box over the years. In due time they began making their way to the world once again—this time, as poetry prompts. Reaching the bottom of the barrel on the eve of her 60th birthday, Maxwell compiled her poems into “The Tzedakah Box” as an act of generous sharing for readers of all types.
“Spiritual evolution or soul development can happen through everything—even our mistakes and misfortunes—and we need to appreciate that even the most ordinary events of our daily life are significant contributions,” Maxwell said. Indeed, her poetry collection recounts both joys and sorrows, hits and misses, of a life that has spanned the 1960s to now.
“An amazing collection of poems eloquently written that explores depth and breadth in the life of a woman who appears open to many experiences with the presence of spirituality,” one reviewer wrote.
Another reviewer wrote, “words wonderfully woven together distilling in poetry form the varied experiences of life and its lessons gleaned from the journey.”
Another said, “'The Tzedakah Box’ is a brilliantly diverse collection of poems nakedly revealing the past sixty years of the poet’s lived experience: an intimate, poignant, humorous, spiritual, and relatable celebration of life."
Small moments comprise most of the human experience. Happy, sad, frustrating, fulfilling snippets of everyone’s lives are what make people uniquely the same. “The Tzedakah Box” illustrates how important seemingly insignificant moments are as Maxwell reflects on a life full of them.
“The Tzedakah Box”
By Michele Maxwell
ISBN: 9781982248697 (softcover); 9781982248710 (hardcover); 9781982248703 (electronic) Available at the Balboa Press Online Bookstore, Amazon and Barnes & Noble
About the author
Michele Maxwell is a lifelong lover and writer of poetry. She holds a Master’s degree in theology, having studied at the University of Texas, Trinity, Harvard, and St. Mary's. She has edited a monthly spiritual journal, River of Light, for the past thirty years, and is the author of “Mary, Matrix of Change: Personal and Global Transformation through the Rosary”, a book about her experience of Medjugorje. Maxwell resides in the historic downtown arts district of San Antonio, Texas.
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