Uphill idealist

I can't say that one book or another is my favorite. Some books seem to call your attention from the shelf saying "Choose me!". Others are gifted to you by a friend, family member and even a few strangers. So for now, I'll give you a few of the books that have found me at just the right moment... I decided to go back to college as an adult student because of this book. Really. Circle of Quiet This one caught me up in the story and impacted my reality. The Shack This one was given to me by a friend during a time of transition. It took a little while for me to pick up, but once I got started it was healing and helpful to read. Leaving Church One summer I was reading this book at the beach, realized after the fact that I'd met one of the folks from this community earlier in the spring. Later that summer I met the author and by fall I had the privilege to sit down and have lunch with the author. Soul Graffiti I came across this little novel at a thrift store and read...

Let's face it. The church calendar and the calendar on our walls and in our planners are not one in the same. The Liturgical calendar is distinctly unique and has a way of setting those that follow it on a different rhythm that follow the Greco Roman Calendar alone. I spoke to a friend at church recently (the day after Christmas) and she shared that many people she knew were already done with Christmas. By the morning of December 26th, many people were planning to or already were removing the decorations and traces of Christmas. The only thing I could think was, after all the preparation - what's the rush to put Christmas away? Over the last few years, I've begun to become better educated on the Liturgical year and its cycles, and now know that Christmas Day is only the beginning of the celebration. It was wonderful to discover that many people wait to give gifts on January 6th, which just so happens to be my birthday, which is referred to as Epiphany. Epiphany is defined a...

I have many kid's books that I adore... Miss Spider's Tea Party , One Fish Two Fish , Where the Sidewalk Ends , and yes even the cute and colorful, "If you Give a Mouse a Cookie" . In this story, a tiny little mouse eventually wears out an energetic young boy by his never-ending request for cookies, glasses of milk, straws to drink the milk and more. This fun and somewhat exasperating story has had much in common with my last week. Only I don't have a mouse to blame on all the requests at hand. The one setting up all the extra 'requests' has been none other than... me, myself and I. After a month and a half of working on a large mural project, it was completed on Saturday. There was some holiday shopping for work and my family accomplished and Sunday was a marathon day of Christmas program rehearsal, Vespers worship, Lucia shopping, Lucia and then a neighborhood Christmas dinner/sing-a-long and vollyball play-off tonight. In the midst of all this, my hubby...

A Facebook friend tagged me in this meme and I couldn't resist. Here goes my effort to recall the first 15 books that have stuck with me. 1. Circle of Quiet by Madeline L'Engle. This book made me what to go to back to college. 2. Sacred Space - this devotional book is published every year and has been my most consistent companion in my prayer life. 3. The New Moosewood Cookbook - This cookbook offers incredibly tasty vegetarian dishes. Its always fun to cook out of. 4. The Message - Whenever I'm looking for a fresh way of looking at scripture I look in Eugene Peterson's paraphrase version of the Bible. 5. Bird by bird by Anne Lamott. I don't think this book is one a writer is ever "done" with. Just when you think there is no more to write about, Anne pushes you to dig deeper. 6. The Shack by William P. Young - I read this last summer when I had been laid off and was dealing with so many emotions. It helped me make my way through to the other side. 7...

"Gray" from Don Perovich's log . In a world where discomfort and pain seem to get the greatest amount of attention, my friend Mary Lue leads the way on her Sleeping with bread host post with words of comfort that rush over me like a warm tide. "You will call and I will answer you; you will long for the creature your hands have made. Surely then you will count my steps but not keep track of my sin" (Job 14:15-16) All week long it seems a series of discomforts were in the works of life. My son's broken wrist, some challenges with allergy asthma and exercise, rain that never seemed it would stop, and a meeting that was so negative that it effected my mood for way too many days of the week. In many ways it was a gray week. Image from China Daily. But then there were many, many comforts that were like beams of sunlight breaking the grayness away. Like having a Greek lunch with my son and having both of us laugh at the challenge of eating soup with his left hand...

This last weekend, I had the opportunity and time to hit the mall and wander around my local Walden books/Borders store. I was there with my daughter as she was picking out a few books for part of her birthday gift. They had a decent sale going on, so I ended up with two books of my own as I left the store that day. One was "The Unlikely Disciple" by Kevin Roose, a journalistic expose on his incognito semester at Liberty University (which I just started today) and another up and coming book called, "The Middle Place" by Kelly Corigan. About two weeks ago, a woman at the bookstore had suggested this book to me. Upon hearing that the book was based on the author's real-life dealings with cancer, I decided against it - I thought something more upbeat would be better to read. This weekend, yet another woman at the book store tells me that "The Middle Place" is a must read. Either I was overcome with book greed or the red buy one get one sticker went to ...