56 Books in 52 Weeks

In 2013, I found myself on a pilgrimage.  It was a pilgrimage traveled primarily with a pillow behind my head, a stuffed teddy bear on my lap, and a little white dog snuggled up by my side. It was a journey to read a book-a-week for one calendar year. 

The previous year, I had read 26 books, but as 2013 began, I was in the middle of an unexpected divorce, changes were on the horizon, and I needed a new way to find my way.  And so I read, and read, and read, and the words and stories carried me both into the depths of myself and into beautiful new imaginations for my soul.

Many of the books I read were memoirs -- stories of challenge and survival, loss and new life, the unexpected and the blessed-ed unexpected.

Ever the over-achiever, I was not content when I finished my quest a month early. With four weeks left in the year, I read four more books in December.  So here they are my "56 Books in 52 Weeks."

Most of them, I would read again.  Many of them, you may enjoy. Because of that, look for reflections on at least some of them in the weeks to come.

2013 was the year of reading for me. Perhaps 2014 will become the year of writing.

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Becoming Odyssa: Epic Adventures on the Appalachian Trail, by Jennifer Pharr Davis

Blueberry Summers: Growing Up at the Lake, by Curtiss Anderson

Breathwalk: Breathing Your Way to a Revitalized Body, Mind, and Spirit,  by Gurucharan Singh Khalsa

The Children’s Blizzard, by David Laskin

A Dog for All Seasons: A Memoir, by Patti Sherlock

Dog Years: A Memoir, by Mark Doty

Dogs of Bedlam Farm, by Jon Katz

Following Atticus: Forty-Eight High Peaks, One Little Dog, and an Extraordinary Friendship, by Tom Ryan

The Forgetting River: A Modern Tale of Survival, Identity, and the Inquisition, by Doreen Carvajal

The Freedom Writer’s Diary: How a Teacher and 150 Teens Used Writing to Change Themselves and the World Around Them, The Freedom Writer’s Diary: How a Teacher and 150 Teens Used Writing to Change Themselves and the World Around Them, by The Freedom Writers and Erin Gruwell

Fumbling: A Pilgrimage Tale of Love, Grief, and Spiritual Renewal on the Camino De Santiago, by Kerry Egan

Going Nuts!, by David W. Jones

The Good Daughter: A Memoir of My Mother’s Hidden Life, by Jasmin Darznik

The Good, Good Pig, by Sy Montgomery

The Great Northern Express: A Writer’s Journey Home, by Howard Frank Mosher

Half a Life, by Darin Strauss

Healing Walks for Hard Times, by Carolyn Scott Kortge

Heart in the Right Place, by Carolyn Jourdan

Home by Another Way, by Barbara Brown Taylor

I Have Lived a Thousand Years: Growing Up in the Holocaust, by Livia Bitton-Jackson

An Invisible Thread: The True Story of an 11-Year-old panhandler, a busy sales executive and an unlikely meeting with destiny, by Laura Schroff and Alex Tresniowski

Learning to Breathe: One Woman’s Journey of Spirit and Survival, by Alison Wright

The Little Bookstore of Bigstone Gap: a memoir of friendship, community, and the uncommon pleasure of a good book, by Wendy Welch

The Long-Shining Waters, by Danielle Sosin

Mrs. Lincoln’s Dressmaker, by Jennifer Chiaverini

Not Quite What I Was Planning: Six Word Memoirs, edited by Rachel Ferschleiser and Larry Smith

Off Balance, by Dominique Moceanu

Open Secrets, by Alice Munro

Orange is the New Black: My Year in a Women’s Prison, by Piper Kerman

Pastrix: The Cranky, Beautiful Faith of a Sinner and Saint, by Nadia Bolz-Weber

The Pilgrimage: A Contemporary Quest for Ancient Wisdom, by Paulo Coelho

The Practice of Saying No, by Barbara Brown Taylor

Prairie Silence: A Memoir, by Melanie Hoffert

Running with Champions: A Midlife Journey on the Iditarod Trail, by Lisa Frederic

Second Wind: One Woman’s Quest to Run Seven Marathons on Seven Continents, by Cami Ostman

The Secret Life of Objects, by Dawn Raffel

Sheepish: Two Women, Fifty Sheep, and Enough Wool to Save the Planet, by Catherine Friend

Shepherds of Coyote Rocks: Public Lands, Private Herds, and the Natural World, by Cat Urbigkit
 

The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating” A True Story, by Elisabeth Tova Bailey

The Story of Beautiful Girl, by Rachel Simon

Storycatcher: Making Sense of our Lives through the Power and Practice of Story by Christina Baldwin

Summoning the Mountains: Pilgrimage into Forty, by Amy Allen

Tell Me True: Memoir, History, and Writing a Life, edited by Patricia Hampl and Elaine Tyler May

Three Among Wolves: A Couple and their Dog Live a Year with Wolves in the Wild, by Helen Thayer

Two Feet, Four Paws: Walking the Coastline of Britain, by Spud Talbot-Ponsonby

Unicorns of Balinor: Night of the Shifter’s Moon, by Mary Stanton

Unicorns of Balinor: Shadows Over Balinor, by Mary Stanton

The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, by Rachel Joyce

Walking the Gobi: A 1600 Mile Trek Across a Desert of Hope and Despair, by Helen Thayer

Walking Through Cancer, by Elyn Aviva

Wesley the Owl: The Remarkable Love Story of an Owl and His Girl, by Stacey O’Brien

Why Did Jesus, Moses, the Buddha, and Mohammed Cross the Road?, by Brian D. McLaren

Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail, by Cheryl Strayed

With Violets, by Elizabeth Robards

Without a Map: A Memoir, by Meredith Hall

Y,  by Marjorie Celona

Go Gently

            What do you say when you say “good-bye?”  I find myself extra conscious these days of the words that I use when parting company with someone – my beloved daughters, my friends, the cherished members of my family.  Perhaps it is a result of reflections upon the devastating Oklahoma tornado, and the lives lost in a moment with no opportunity for “one more word.”  Perhaps it is finding myself in middle age.  Maybe it is simply a result of having bid farewell to another group of students at the end of another academic year, but whatever the cause, I find myself conscious of how I – and others -- say “good-bye.”

            I watch the “comings and goings” in the school parking lots at the beginnings and endings of days.  I see parents standing at bus stops with their children.  I watch “drop offs” outside my office window, and in moments of introspection, I find myself wondering, if this is the last good-bye, will it be a good one?  Will the words uttered be words of love, care, and concern?  Will they be words of affection, grace, and blessing, or will they be terse, harsh reminders of things undone, deeds fallen short, expectations unfilled?

            In recent months, I have been gifted with a new word of parting from my spiritual director.  We meet once a month to reflect upon experiences of the presence of God, wholeness, balance, and grace.  At the end of each conversation as I go on my way, she places one hand upon my shoulder, opens the door with her other hand and says, “go gently.  Go gently.”

            What a gift!  What a word of promise and blessing – go gently!  Go gently into your day.  Go gently into your work.  Go gently into your home-going.  Go gently into your parenting.  Go gently into your praying.  Go gently into your playing.  Go gently into your loving.  Go gently with others.  Go gently with yourself.  Go gently.  Go gently.

            Wherever you find yourself today, amid whatever tasks or leisure, joys or sorrow, may this word be a gift to you, and may you in turn offer it as a gift to others.  Go gently! 

            And in all of your good-byes – big or small, momentous or routine – may God bless your going out and your coming in, from this time forth and forevermore.

            Go gently!

The View From the Porch

 

I stood on my front porch the other day and did something I rarely do

Ok, I never do it.
I stood still
Looked
First one way and then another.

I looked up and down

Side to side
Back and forth.

It was not a profound act

It is something that I could do anytime I choose

But I never

Or rarely do,
Choose that is.
Choose to stop on my front porch and look
Look with the intention of seeing

But what if I did

Choose to look, that is
Choose to see

From a place

That I usually
Simply
Or quickly
Pass over
Or through

What if I stopped

What if I looked

What if I chose to see

And then,

What if I did it again

And again

And again

Day after day

Week after week

Month after month

What would happen

To the porch

To me

To what I see?

I think it’s time to find out

Won’t you join me?

God's Valentine

When I was a child, one of my favorite Valentine’s Day treats was the box of candy hearts. You know what I mean – the little heart-shaped treats with special Valentine’s Day love messages imprinted on them. Some of those messages are as timeless as “I love you,” or “Be mine.” Others, I have learned, change over time so that message “fits” with a specific era. The most popular candy heart sayings last year included “text me” and “tweet me.”

On this Valentine’s Day, I have been wondering how God’s message for the world might look, imprinted on a candy heart. What might God’s sayings be? In my thoughts, I have turned to one of my favorite passages. “Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine. ² When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you. ³ For I am the Lord your God…you are precious in my sight, and honored, and I love you” (Isaiah 43:1-4).

So, what is God’s love message for you on this Valentine’s Day? Do not fear! You are mine! I will be with you! You are precious! You are honored! I love you! May you know that these words of God for you are not merely cute sayings for a given day that comes and goes: these are God’s words for you every day, every moment of your life – in all times and all places. These are the words written on God’s heart and poured out for you in perfect, unending love.

God Bless Your Valentine’s Day!

Enough for Today

I awoke with a start in the early hours of Saturday morning. Like an old-fashioned record player stuck on a scratch, my “to-do” list for the next few weeks was playing over and over again in my mind. I could see my calendar in my mind’s eye with very little “white space.” The series of tasks needing to be accomplished scrolled through my thoughts like a video on a repeating loop. I was certain that I was done with sleep for the night.

Then, almost as quickly as I awoke, a verse from scripture started to overtake my feelings of dread. “Today’s trouble is enough for today” (Matthew 6:34). A simple verse within Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, this became my prayer amid those anxious early morning hours. By grace, sleep returned, and in the morning, it was that verse – today’s trouble is enough for today – that was still in my mind.

It seems like just yesterday we were celebrating the Christmas holiday season, and here it is the second week of February. Life is full to overflowing with what can seem like endless demands – personal and professional. All that is required at any given time can certainly by overwhelming, but it is good to remember to live day-by-day, one moment at a time, one task at a time. In such, there is freedom to simply “do today,” trusting that tomorrow can indeed wait until tomorrow.

God Bless Your Living, Today!