We all want to make sense of life-the good, the painful, the miraculous. Who are we? Why are we here? What should we do with our lives? How do we hold on to hope, in a world that is both beautiful and broken?    Through eight lyrical and reflective essays, one of today's most thoughtful spiritual writers, Steven Garber, explores the idea of the "proximate"-a word from the Latin "proximatus," to draw near. Garber invites us to draw near to the deepest realities of life and to see with greater clarity and compassion-recognizing what is true, right, and beautiful in the world, even as we see the suffering all around us.  Hints of Hope probes what it means to be human; to wrestle with the contradictions we all face in our marriages, in our workplaces, in our friendships and vocations. We all experience beauty and brokenness, wonder and despair, joy and sorrow. We live with disappointment and grief and pain . . . wanting more, expecting more, but never being completely fulfilled. Paradoxically, as we make peace with the proximate, our vision is expanded to see more clearly the glimmers of beauty and grace that thread their way through our lives. Garber suggests that those hints of hope are enough in this frail world of ours, "a world stretched taut between what is and what someday will be." Written in memoir form, Hints of Hope weaves together decades of Garber's travels, teaching, and personal musings to offer a tapestry of wisdom on vocation, culture, faith, and hope. Readers of Wendell Berry, Parker Palmer, Marilyn McEntyre, and Frederick Buechner will find a rich, soul-nourishing feast within these pages.