A Gentle Spirit Within
A Photographer’s Journey Through
Light, Landscape and Grace
Some things can only be found when you stop looking.
For thirty years Norman Schillawski drove back roads, climbed mountain ridgelines, and stood at the edges of rivers and gorges with a camera — searching for light, finding stillness, and slowly discovering that both were pointing him somewhere he had not expected to go.
A Gentle Spirit Within is a spiritual memoir woven together with landscape photography from three decades on the road. It is a quiet book — not about dramatic conversion but about the slow, permanent change that comes from learning to pay attention. From the cascading gorges of Watkins Glen to the golden light over Franconia Notch, from the desert silence of West Texas to the misty shores of the Georgia coast, each photograph became a doorway into something deeper.
Written for anyone who has sensed something just beneath the surface of ordinary life — and longed to understand it better.
AVAILABLE IN:
Kindle eBook — $4.99
Paperback — $27.99
Hardcover — $37.99
A GLIMPSE INSIDE
The Rock
Fernandina Beach, Florida April 2025 — from the chapter Where the Still Water
The Promise of Tomorrow
Franconia Notch, New Hampshire — a sunset that asked a question I wasn’t ready for
“The photographs in this book began as an attempt to capture beauty. They became something else entirely.”
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Norman Schillawski is a landscape photographer, first-time author, and full-time RVer traveling the East Coast of America. After decades in business and thirty years behind a camera, he wrote A Gentle Spirit Within to share what the road quietly revealed — one photograph at a time.
Order A Signed Copy
Signed copies of A Gentle Spirit Within are available directly from Norm. Each copy is personally signed and can be personalized with a name or short inscription upon request.
To order, send a message through the Contact page with your name, mailing address, any personalization you would like, and your preferred format. Norm will be in touch promptly with payment details and a shipping estimate.