“I HAVE"sworn to myself that I wasn’t going to do any more books. They’re just too much work,” said  Jim Taylor.

If anyone knows about writing, Taylor does. Throughout his career, he’s written 15 books, ghostwritten a few more and published countless articles that appeared in publications as diverse as The Financial Post, The Imperial Review, Reader’s Digest and the Toronto Star.

With his extensive experience in broadcasting and editing, Taylor is known as one of Canada’s most respected authors and editors. Also, along with colleague Ralph Milton, he founded Wood Lake Publishing, Canada’s largest religious publishing house.

These days, his schedule includes helping care for an elderly neighbour – and dealing with Joey the cat’s nocturnal door scratching.  But even in retirement, he is discovering that a writer doesn’t really stop writing. Even now, he continues to write a weekly blog featuring his reflections on life. “Writing keeps my brain alive,” he said.

More recently, ostensibly against his better judgement, he’s agreed to write another book. Due to the success of Everyday Parables, a book about spiritual truths gleaned from daily experiences, Wood Lake has asked him to write a second volume, to be called More Everyday Parables.

“What I’m trying to do is not just to take the parables that Jesus taught and update them in some way, but to ask myself: ‘If he were living in my kind of world, what material would he draw on for his parables now?’”

Born in India to Christian missionaries, Taylor credits his mother for ingraining in him a love of language. Feedback and interaction with readers give him immense satisfaction. “I really value those, because that gives me a sense of what my audience are thinking, what they are feeling.”

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Writing is also Taylor’s way of understanding the world around him. Ever observant, and a natural philosopher, Taylor writes about almost everything.

By putting pen to paper, he quickly realized that “walking the dog or digging in the garden were not just tasks I was doing to get done; they all have something to say to me.”

In the process of coping with his son’s death, he even wrote letters to his deceased child, hoping to sort through his emotions and survive a colossal paradigm shift.

This personal record of his healing journey was later published as Letters to Stephen.  

In this book, Taylor wrote: “For me, writing has always been a kind of therapy. Throughout my life, I have used writing as a way of working out my tensions, of figuring out what was happening to me . . . The act of writing helped me make sense out of experiences and information which otherwise remained undigested and meaningless.”

Years of writing have earned him many accolades. But when asked what he considers his most significant achievement, he spoke of inspiring theology students who very nearly dropped out of their studies.

“After they read An Everyday God, they discovered that there was another way of writing theology – and it gave them the courage to carry on and apply that lesson in their ministry.”

These days, he said, he looks forward to more hikes and more time with friends. Plus celebrating a golden anniversary with wife Sharon. And of course, more writing.

– Lailani Mendoza

June 2010