Tindal, Mardi 1952-

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TINDAL, Mardi 1952-

PERSONAL:

Born September 17, 1952 in Victoria Square, Ontario, Canada; married; husband's name Doug; children: two sons. Education: York University, B.A.; Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, M.A. Religion: United Church of Canada.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Burlington, Ontario, Canada. Office—Five Oaks Centre, R.R. 3, Paris, Ontario, Canada N3L 3E3. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER:

Spirit Connection (television show), Ontario, Canada, co-host and story producer, 1988-97; host and producer of television shows for TV Ontario, 1997-99; Five Oaks Centre, Paris, Ontario, adult program coordinator; writer. Consultant with public, private, and voluntary organizations in Canada and the United States. Leader of adult spiritual retreats.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Aurora Gold Awards for documentary, reporting, religious issues, and editing, all for video Soul Maps.

WRITINGS:

Soul Maps: A Guide to the Midlife Spirit, United Church Publishing House (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 2000, Augsburg Books (Minneapolis, MN), 2003.

ADAPTATIONS:

A half-hour video documentary, Soul Maps, has been produced in Canada.

SIDELIGHTS:

Mardi Tindal is a former Canadian broadcaster who turned her own spiritual quest into a book for those who are facing midlife crises. Soul Maps: A Guide to the Midlife Spirit contains advice from people of varied faiths and walks of life who have managed to turn the middle years into a period of intellectual and emotional growth. Each chapter in the book contains questions to help the reader define and focus upon a spiritual search while redefining relationships with parents and children. In Canadian Book Review Annual, Sheila Martindale noted that while Tindal's message "may not be new or ground-breaking," it nevertheless "is packaged here in a readable and thought-provoking fashion." A Publishers Weekly reviewer likewise felt that the author's reflections "teach us that we're not alone in experiencing the bleak valleys of midlife."

In an interview on the Soul Maps Web site, Tindal said of Soul Maps: "I wrote this book because I needed to read it. At forty-six I was knee-deep in spiritual confusion as a person for whom spirit is critically important. I needed some mid-life wisdom so I went looking for wise, spiritually attuned mid-lifers and found them everywhere."