Emily Jansen on Her New Book, A Wilder Eden
Emily Jansen is a dreamer, author, marketing communications and corporate philanthropy professional, and global citizen at heart. She is passionate about empowering women to embrace their stories and dreams with courage and confidence. She has always been a writer and lover of words, but it wasn’t until 2017 that she felt called to write her anticipated book, A Wilder Eden, scheduled to release in Spring 2022.
For Emily, it seemed like there were broken dreams all around her – a friend struggling through years of infertility, divorces happening, women heartbroken by prolonged singleness, financial struggles for families, careers leaving people feeling unfulfilled and disenchanted by corporate America, and her own deep desires that felt deferred. “People were longing for hope and the ability to dream again; to envision new things in their lives and relationships. Simultaneously, I wrote a lot of short meditations and e-mailed them out to friends – my BCC list had become pretty robust, and I was getting positive feedback on my reflections. So, I decided to put pen to paper on all of it and write a book!”
A Wilder Eden helps you reimagine your story when the pages of your life don’t mirror your dreams. “It reminds us that God, the author of our stories and champion of our dreams, calls us to co-create with Him, keep dreaming despite our doubt, and beckons us into His greater Kingdom dreams.” Emily continues, “There are all wildernesses in our lives and long droughts of waiting; in this process, we feel our dreams have died, or that we don’t even know what our dreams are anymore. We wonder how to keep dreaming in a world of disappointments. Yet, certain things can only bloom in the desert, chiefly the fruit of our hearts. God knows us intimately and we have to go into the desert to find Him and rediscover ourselves. In this unconventional place, we discover that when viewed from the lens of faith, the wilderness is, in fact, a wilder Garden of Eden than the actual Eden in which we think we would be better off. Even in drought, we can bear fruit; only certain things can bloom in the desert.”
“A Wilder Eden is for anyone who has a dream – a held dream that they have lost, a hoped-for dream that they’re waiting to hold, an almost but not-yet dream, a deferred dream, a new dream,” Emily says. She feels that this book is essential, especially now because people are experiencing the deferral of dreams caused by the global pandemic. “As individuals, couples and families have had to put their dreams on the shelf to prioritize the most important things. We have all experienced a sense of loss, death of dreams, and the lament of how to keep dreaming in a world of disappointments, death and desolations. Even so, God invites us to co-create with Him in the greater Kingdom story, and if we are willing to keep dreaming through drought and the wilderness, I believe we can find windows of grace to flourish and bear fruit in surprising places.”
Emily says that A Wilder Eden isn’t a classic self-help book. “I wrote it more as a modular memoir and used my own experiences and reflections to give you moments to ponder your own dreams and then to decide at the end of each chapter how to apply a concept in your own life. I intentionally did not provide reflection questions at the end of each chapter because I want my readers to leverage my adjacent resources, poetry and reading recommendations.”
Emily encourages readers – whether as a person of Christian faith or not – to take the time to sit with their own souls and reconcile the past, whether that be through journaling, therapy, prayer, study of scriptures, or just pausing to remember who you really are. “You cannot move into the present unless you have identified the problem, pain or disappointment of the past; and you cannot envision your future flourishing unless you pursue wholeness and crystallize your identity in the present. So, take A Wilder Eden as a poetic tool in your dreams journey, knowing that you are not alone and most importantly, God is committed to your dreams and to His dreams for you.”
Emily shares that a few days before 2022, she set her intention with the word of her New Year – Abundance. Ironically, a few days into the New Year, she received word that she had been laid off due to a re-org. “Abundance = losing my job? After I cried a bit, I had to laugh. I knew God was up to something.” Emily says that she immediately felt a deep sense of peace knowing that God was calling her to embody the message of her own book – despite the death of dreams she’s experienced throughout her career at times. “I know without a shadow of a doubt that God was inviting me to dedicate more of my energy and time to birthing this book into the world for you and getting it across the finish line.”
While walking through the death of her dreams and navigating who she is today, Emily wants readers to know that she is right there with them.
“It is possible to keep dreaming in a world of disappointments because God put your dream in your heart in the first place. You are the only one who has your dream, and it matters more than you will ever know. Don’t lose heart. Don’t shrink back now – step out in faith and watch Him act on your behalf.”
What you can do right now:
Visit www.emilyjjansen.com, and sign up to join my e-mail list
Invite a friend to sign up for the e-mail notifications too!
Follow @awildereden and @emilyjjansen
