Many people know Becca Stevens and the amazing work she and others have accomplished through Thistle Farms in Nashville, a global movement for women’s freedom. It has changed the course of many women’s lives, especially those who have experienced emotional and physical traumas.
“I’m part of a large circle where hands are holding hands,” she says. “I love being a part of a larger story, of a community doing that healing work, so it’s not just me as an individual. The circle keeps expanding and inviting more people in for healing.”
Another way she's inviting people in is through some good old-fashioned storytelling. Full of inspiration, insight and her mother’s own words, her new book, Practically Divine, released in October of 2021, is also deep, humorous and infused with love.
“If I distilled my faith down to a word, it is ‘love’,” says Becca. “That’s why there are volumes, tomes, operas and books all based around it. The world is saying it’s the essence of who we are and Whose we are. It’s the most powerful force.”
One of her inspirations for writing the book came from running into her abuser’s grandson at the café she built at Thistle Farms (Becca was sexually abused at the age of 5). “That was a big one,” she says. “It triggered this whole idea of my past and my present and how I could see this divine thread throughout, and how it was easy to feel like I was coming from a place of really wanting nothing but the best in love and compassion for this young man. I was also thinking how my mom would have been so happy and proud if she would’ve lived to see it.”
Practically Divine, she says, is gleaned from 25 years of being in a community that’s learning to see the beauty in our imperfections, to see the wonder in our brokenness. “I thought it was time to really bring it all together,” says Becca. “Not only the stories, but also the wisdom that I was able to be a part of and share. It’s a really hard time in our country, so it was the right time for remembering that we are practically divine.”
The book is threaded throughout with sayings from her mother, Anne -- which even 25 years after her death -- Becca still reflects on to get her through the challenges and vagaries of life. She wants these phrases to serve as jumping-off places for deeper thought and conversation.
“The one I started with is ‘In Broad Daylight.’ She used to say things like ‘Someone just cut me off in broad daylight!’ all the time, and it’s the idea of the audacity of people doing things like that in the light of day. How is it we think that if we do something in the dark it’s somehow better and we can get away with it?”
Another is 'Who promised you fair?' “And it has to be with her tone of voice,” says Becca. “She was a single mom to five kids – tell me about not fair.” (Becca’s dad died when she was a young 5 years.) “Basically, she was saying you might as well go look for something else like mercy, or compassion, or resiliency, because life isn’t fair.”
Of course, her personal experiences with childhood abuse and poverty played a big part in writing the book. “Starting at around 5 years old, it influenced everything in my life,” she says. “It influenced how I got married, how I parented, how I chose my work. It influenced how I saw the world and how I read the news. But hopefully it also gave me the desire to dig deeper and find truth. It gave me some humor and it gave me some courage to speak the truth when I saw it. I was scared to write it because there were some people who were mad about some of the stuff I was writing. All of us want to be liked, but all of us also want to be free, and those don’t always go together.”
In addition to healing others, writing the book was also a healing process for her. She found the solace and inspiration that she hopes to give to others who pick it up and read it. “I hope when finished with it, they have an insight into their own lives and are inspired to react to that insight in a different way,” says Becca. “It’s a call for reflection first, and then a call to action.”
She adds, “It’s a great book to give to someone who is going through a life transition or someone who is starting a new venture. Many times when people are starting something new, they are open to new ideas, and this might be a beautiful book to carry with them into that new venture.”
Order Practically Divine from Amazon, or at ThistleFarms.org/pages/practically-divine.
To purchase tickets to Thistle Farm's next conference in Nashville in March, go to ThistleFarms.org.