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 PrintableVersion Tracks across the beachBlurred pictureTRACKS ACROSS THE BEACH Do you find that some days you're only surrounded by ugliness - grotty buildings, bad language, fast pace and lack of manners? As I went through Tracks across the beach it was so good to be reminded that life wasn't always like that, and even now isn't unremittingly so. In many ways this is an agreeable and enjoyable book. Like the best paintings, Peter Smith's writing takes you to familiar places, but makes them new by giving you God's bigger picture. Like the best writing, Graham Clarke's watercolours show you the world around but in ways you've simply been blind to yourself. Peter Smith writes with disarming openness about his struggles in choosing the right tracks, using his teaching as a window on that Christian thought-life. His style is easy and natural, more for Christians but could speak to a thoughtful seeker. Graham Clarke's paintings reveal a sure and expert hand and eye, pleasingly restrained in content and colour, stating what's important and allowing the imagination to fill in the rest. I don't know the places depicted, but I'm intrigued and would like to visit them! However, I do have some quibbles with this book. I simply don't understand some of Peter Smith's experiences and explanations, e.g. some passages on dreams and celebration in chapter 13, including '. . . when we dream God's dreams they should lead to a celebration of life and faith . . .' God doesn't dream, so what does this mean? He's also in danger of equating the Christian's walk with the pursuit of happiness, and I feel the links between Christians and non-Christians are misleadingly blurred. But this book is not a blue-print for your life or mine, rather an aid to interpreting our own 'tracks across the beach' as we, too, reflect on our walk of faith. Ann Gall,
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