CONWAY — When Jean Leffler and her husband, Dave, first laid eyes on Lake Conway, the 6,700-acre manmade fishing spot in southeastern Faulkner County wasn’t much to look at and still isn’t, Jean said.
However, God opened Leffler’s eyes to the simple beauties the lake offered and it became her spiritual muse, and in turn, her first book, “Spirituality at Sunrise.”
“I thought, ‘Who am I to write a book on spirituality?’” Leffler said, until she read author Father Ron Rolheiser’s words on spirituality in his 1999 book “The Holy Longing: The Search for A Christian Spirituality.” “He writes, ‘Spirituality is what we do with our spirits and our souls.’ I have the opportunity to sit on the dock and watch God happen. Too often we go through everyday life with blinders on, we don’t have the opportunity to watch what’s happening and we don’t realize what God has done.”
Leffler, who is the adult faith coordinator at St. Joseph Church in Conway, and her husband, bought the small fishing cabin on Lake Conway in the fall of 2005 with the sole purpose of fixing it up and selling it. However, it soon became Leffler’s weekend home and parting with it wasn’t an option, she said.
“Spirituality at Sunrise,” the 116-page book published in 2012 by Tate Publishing and Enterprises, started out as a journal, chronicling Leffler’s ponderings and observations about the world while admiring the lake and its animal and plant life at dawn.
“It was really kind of frightening to open my soul to family and friends and strangers … I don’t show that side of me very often,” Leffler said. “I can encourage others to sit down and journal and watch the sunrise and watch God wake us up in the morning.”
Along with vivid descriptions of scenery, drawings and photos, Leffler includes stories of her family and growing up around the ocean, all pieced together with the Word of God through psalms, other Scripture verses and prayers. In the book, Leffler often relates life to the lake, from how we interact with one another in society to the storms along our life’s journey.
“I’m not a morning person,” Leffler said, despite her now propensity to admire the sunrises at the lake house. “I’m terrible at sitting in front of the Blessed Sacrament at adoration because I fall asleep. Meditating does not come easily. When I was sitting out on the dock, it was just so vivid, God’s beauty and the majesty in what he can do and what he does with the sunrise.”
The couple, who has been in Arkansas since 1993, lives in Conway, but the lake has become the couple’s getaway and the book, a glimpse into the peace that they’ve found on the water.
“It’s amazing how just sitting out there how you feel so at peace with life and with God,” Dave Leffler said. “I enjoyed the whole book because of the spirituality of it.”
The lake awoke the artist in Leffler, she said, which had been almost dormant since receiving her associate’s degree in commercial arts when she was 19 years old. At 50, Leffler received bachelor’s degrees in theology and business. Journaling at the lake became her creative outlet around 2007 and after a few years, the book took shape, Leffler said.
In September, Leffler resigned as director of religious education at St. Joseph after running the program for 12 years to focus primarily on adult faith programs.
Since the book was completed, Leffler said she and her husband have spent many hours remodeling the house after a flood in 2011 brought in about eight inches of water, destroying much of the inside.
However, Leffler said she’s still able to enjoy her sunrises at the lake and the mysteries God reveals in those morning hours.
“It’s the water and the reflection, the growing of the light,” Leffler said. “Isn’t that the way all our lives are? We are in the dark until we look for God and let him show himself.”
The book is available on the Tate Publishing and Enterprises website, tatepublishing.com, for $11.99 retail and on Amazon.com. More information is also on Facebook at “Spirituality at Sunrise.”
