I'm not the sort of person who enjoys isolation in a non-urban setting for more than a few hours, so I don't much empathise with Hawker's decision to spend 40 days alone with God and Nature. Furthermore, not many of us would have the time, or the spiritual drive, to want to spend 40 days without books, paper, or any other form of distraction. And in Wellington's Tararua Mountain range, to boot! However, his spiritual pilgrimage did touch me deeply.
Hawker had reached a time in his life when, in spite of having a great family and a successful documentary filmmaking career, he felt hollow inside. He saw himself as the sort of person who needs to work at life full-bore in case others discover how 'unlovable' he really is. He enjoyed people, but also delighted in solitude - though as a responsible family man he'd had few opportunities to experience it. The mid-life urging of his soul gave him the motivation not only to go into solitude but also to strive to hear God's voice.
In the first few days he was forced to stay in one area due to his feet blistering under the unaccustomed weight of an extremely heavy pack, and during that time he discovered some criteria for discerning whether what he was hearing was from God, from his own mind, or from some other source. He lists these criteria in an appendix, and makes no claim that the list is complete, or that he always got it right. (Back in civilization he relies also on other mentors to help him discern.)
It's interesting to compare his idea of what God was saying to him with the series of books, Conversations With God, by Neale Donald Walsch, in which Walsch's 'God' sometimes seems to dismiss traditional spirituality, yet endorses and embraces some new-age ideas. Hawker is more cautious about what he hears, rejoices more when he understands, and revels not only in the extraordinary beauty of nature, but in his deepening relationship with God. And even "God" comes to seem too small a word for the overwhelming greatness he experiences, since not only in one focused moment does he 'see' Christ, but he also gains an increasing appreciation of just how enormously he is loved.
And this being loved isn't just some simple thing: in Chapter 17, Hawker describes how God asked him to describe his life in detail, and nudged him continually, almost provoked him to dig into all sorts of matters and events Hawker had regarded as trivial. In doing so he realised that God is intensely interested in minutist personal components of our lives.
Hawker's background is Christian, but his book has the ability to reach beyond the Christian scene, to anyone who feels a mid-life hole in their centre, or is trying to understand the spiritual element of their journey. It's perhaps a sign of contemporary spiritual searching that this book has not only been published by a secular publisher, but has been reviewed favourably on Kim Hill's Morning Report.
At $30 the book may be a bit overpriced, but it's well laid out, (with a couple of quotes on each page from a wide variety of authors) and is more than just a one-time read. Hawker's 'adventure' is simplicity itself, but the spiritual aspect should dig deeply into any receptive soul.