A sense of wonder : the world's best writers on the sacred, the profane, and the ordinary / Brian Doyle, editor.

Includes bibliographical references.

An anthology of 36 astonishing personal stories and essays from some of America's best writers that first appeared in Portland Magazine, "the best university magazine in America" (Newsweek). --Publisher's description.

Bruised with joy / Brian Doyle -- An elevator in Utah: on how children make despair look stupid / David James Duncan -- On laughing: notes on the funnest sound there is / Patrick Madden -- Do you think there is anything not attached by its unbreakable cord to everything else? / Mary Oliver -- Burying Mrs. Hamilton: a sacrament in the snow / Father Leroy Clementich, C.S.C. -- Every war has two losers: Oregon's late Poet Laureate on the madness of violence / William Stafford -- On not being good at reading the Bible / Helen Garner -- Learning to love: notes on praying a river / John Daniel -- I hold his hand / Steve Duin -- This soul has six wings: notes on ash and mystics and love and fire and taking it seriously / Jessie Van Eerden -- Hep! Hep! Hep! / Cynthia Ozick -- One of a kind and all the same: notes on hate and love and possibility / Thomas Lynch -- The closest to love we ever get: maybe the noisy song we all make together is the most powerful prayer of all / Heather King -- We have always been here: an Umatilla woman ponders the corps of discovery / Roberta Conner -- Who am I? Notes on ecstatic moments / John Coats -- When I knew: godlessness and God on September 11 / Patrick Giles -- The late Mister Bin Laden: a note / Brian Doyle -- Bald places: notes on nursing as witness / Hob Osterlund -- God owns a convenience store in British Columbia: who knew? / Gae Rusk -- The reality of torture / Martin Flanagan -- A burning soul / Mary Gordon -- I hear and behold God in every object, yet understand God not in the least / Pattiann Rogers -- The river / Paul Myers -- Native: notes on Americanness / Ian Frazier -- Across the void: a note on crazy and crucial hope / Robin Cody -- Madre de dios: on the unimaginable ocean of her love / Barry Lopez -- Who am I, Lord, that you should know my name? A note on believing, against all sense and reason / Bruce Lawrie -- Words are not enough / Alice Lok Cahana -- Her: on a dream coming beautifully true / Bill McNamara -- A war story: in the middle of Iraq in the middle of a war, there was a moment... / Pete Rooks -- The call to forgiveness at the end of the day / Kathleen Dean Moore -- A chapel is where you can hear something beating below your heart: I came to the chapel at the university as the light was falling... / Pico Iyer -- The hope of a trail: "for all I know I am approaching the holiest place in the world. Who can say? Who knows? We know nothing..." / Rick Bass -- When I was blind: "blindness was full of second sight..." / Edward Hoagland -- Why I am a priest / Father Charles Gordon, C.S.C. -- Perfect time: a note on the music of being a dad / Connor Doe -- Healing or stealing? The best commencement address ever / Paul Hawken.