“Hildegards Godin”, de wilde en wijze vrouw in ons (Frits Wilmsen, Director Frits Philips jr & Partners) “I’am impressed by your new book. Great and in-depth insight. Fantastic reading material. Thanks!" Recensie in "Inspirerend Leven" Order Berneboek.com Order Bol.com INTO THE HEART OF MY SOUL 12 years in a convent’s hermitage

(Review by Marius Nuy) Why am I drawn to monasteries like foxes to holes? I drove to the Norbertine abbey, and I stayed in the bookshop - how exceptional – for only four, five minutes. I saw the portrait of Miek Pot, took her book and paid. A warm face of a modern woman, she is 47. Her gentle but confident, determined face made me blush, it became apparent when I was outside, and it could not have been the wind, which was strong and cold. I wanted to attend evening prayer, but the church was closed. In a bay which looked as if it was folded deep to the inside of an immense building structure, windless but just in the last midday sun, I started to read like I was out of breath from my discovery. Her book fell into my heart. Miek Pot, who has lived as a contemplation-meditation teacher in a small apartment in a private alley of the beguinage of Bruges since 2002, lived in a white habit for twelve years – covered with a white pointed hood, her hair hidden but reaching her buttocks, an unseen lively woman as a monial in a convent’s hermitage. First, the stringent Carthusian monastery in Marche-les-Dames, just below Namur, later, of the same order, in the south of France at the end of the world and under the smoke of the famous Abbey of Le Thoronet. She lived here with thirteen other hermits on an estate of 123 acres, each silent as the tomb in their own cell, the heart of the monk. Her intuitive choice for solitude followed after a wild and easy student life, a time without a minute's silence, a life that could develop in all directions but also became a source of unease, a life that seemed so predictable at the same time, perhaps as a mother of several children, as a member of the hockey club and, if that would not be, walking a Labrador, in any case a mundane life that seemed empty and pointless and that collided with the inner process hidden inside, not yet understood but like a forbidden love you do not speak of. Out of the hermit life, an innerly free woman is born. She made a long and - for whom has the heart for it - fascinating journey through the desert, but what was a safe world became a no man's land. She felt as if Jesus told her: 'Become a passer-by, return to the world, to the marketplace’. Her exit became inevitable, but meant no farewell to what she believes in. She wants to be a faithful mountain guide, trying to bring people to silence, bring them awareness and bring them to themselves. Her portrait is standing here, every time I see the title and an exchange of glances, as if she encourages me. Order at Berneboek.com Order at Bol.com

THE GREAT SILENCE (Review by Els Stam)

In a busy period for me, I got this book sent home to review. I experienced it as a great gift. I opened it, read a few lines and immediately knew what I needed. Rest and reflection, silence and meditation, and that is what the book is about. Reading the book already gives peace and creates space. The writer explains that in silence you make the deepest contact with yourself. Contact with the bottom of the soul. The book is written easily and therefore, reads easily. The text is interrupted by poems, reflections. There are also exercises, examples, given to reach the deepest silence, to make contact with the knowledge of the heart. I think it is a beautiful book, and it helps me in my process, in the quest to what it really is all about in this life. Order at Berneboek.com Order at Bol.com