Lift teacup, move crocheted rainbow footies, straiten taped Mulfinger Christmas card lampshade; take extra pillowcase away, pull out two church bulletins, remove empty cat mug, water dry; notice four scents of lotion, one bottle of perfume, one necessary container of muscle rub, two pencils, two pens, one green ink and one empty of ink, near two coasters, one sewn by a young older daughter, and one matching a set of four, gifted for an event requiring thoughtfulness.
The books are slovenly stacked. Hope moves them from place to place. I desire to know them, keep them, absorb their beginnings and transits, digest their authors' characters in paper kept. Better at choosing lotions before bed or dressing, I continue to move books around. They are wonderful, wonderful, like children fostered mine, though I've never written two, and have not yet fostered a child. To know of them is a canyon's view, at one time loving each possible, remembered hold as ledge, homing cataclysmic sight lines, every sunrise and sunset revealing another's passage before me.
Library books:
RICK BASS, The Lives of Rocks, Stories; published by Houghton Mifflin Company; Boston and New York; 2006. Other books by Rick Bass are The Deer Pasture; Wild to the Heart; The Watch; Oil Notes; Winter; The Ninemile Wolves; Platte River; In the Loyal Mountains; The Lost Grizzlies; The Book of Yaak; The Sky, the Stars, the Wilderness; Where the Sea Used to Be; Fiber; The New Wolves; Brown Dog of the Yaak; Colter; The Hermit's Story; The Roadless Yaak (Editor); Caribou Rising; Falling from Grace in Texas (Coeditor with Paul Christensen); and The Diezmo. (I have begun reading the first story in this book and re-began it, reading aloud to my husband. The first story is really sad. I may move on to the second.)
SEBASTIAN BARRY, The Secret Scripture, A Novel; published by Viking Penguin, a member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.; New York, New York; 2008. Other writings by Sebastian Barry are (fiction) A Long Long Way; Annie Dunne; The Whereabouts of Eneas McNulty; (plays) The Steward of Christendom; Sebastian Barry: Plays 1; Our Lady of Sligo; Hinterland; Whistling Psyche; Fred and Jane; The Pride of Parnell Street; (poems) The Water-Colourist; Fanny Hawke Goes To The Mainland For Ever; and The Pinkening Boy. (I am re-reading this book.)
WILLIAM E. BARRETT, The Lilies Of The Field; published by Doubleday & Company, Inc.; Garden City, New York; 1962. Other books by William E. Barrett are The Edge of Things; The Empty Shrine; The Sudden Strangers; The Shadows of the Images; Woman On Horseback; The Left Hand Of God; and Flight From Youth. (I have not read this book.)
MARGARET CRAVEN, Walk Gently This Good Earth; published by G. P. Putnam's Sons; New York; 1977. Margaret Craven authored the book I Heard the Owl Call My Name. (I began reading this story, and thought more of northwestern America, and fathers leaving their children behind, as well as thinking of a woman I know whose childhood was there. The title is wonderful, though, and reading the book may bring me closer to my friend, and closer to "fathers". There is also a piece of mail in this book that I am to pass on to my husband. Reading books is easily interrupted.)
Books in a separate stack, given to me to read:
RORY NOLAND; The Heart Of The Artist: A Character-Building Guide for You & Your Ministry Team; published by Zondervan Publishing House, a division of HarperCollinsPublishers; Grand Rapids, Michigan; 1999. (This is a very good book, belonging to my cousin by marriage, Cory James.)
CINDI WOOD; Too Blessed For This Mess: The Frazzled Female's Guide To Overcoming Stress; published by B&H Publishing Group; Nashville, Tennessee; 2007. (This book was given me by my twice hairdresser, Becki. It is a valuable book, and Becki is a valuable hairdresser; as is Jennifer, my long-time-friend hairdresser. I have been asked by my older daughter if I might be approaching menopause. Perhaps. Either way, my hair wants tending, and books tease the gray matter like nothing else.)
JERRY BRIDGES, BOB BEVINGTON; The Bookends Of The Christian Life; published by Crossway Books; Wheaton, Illinois; 2009. Another book by these authors is The Great Exchange: My Sin For His Righteousness. (I have not begun this book.)
MARTHA PEACE; The Excellent Wife, A Biblical Perspective, expanded edition; published by Focus Publishing Inc.; Bemidji, Minnesota; 1995, 1999, 2005. (I have begun this book and will finish it. I do like that it is filled with scripture. That is its good to me. I think I am not teachable, in the sense that is good for others to perceive. These years, trusting others for anything good at all has been challenged by my own ample willingness to flout my own choices and the opinions of others who appear stable. Stability shifts, intangible, and to know or think or trust God's Will for my intangible staying or shifting has proven, by now, to be a great joy that belongs to me and my Jesus Christ—God having given room to flout my chosen sacred, for a time, enacting His Mercy. I may say it is a joy, and I may lie and repent. But I dare not lie again by logic, because I believe Jesus has my pain and scars, and those of my husband, as well as his and my willing choices at any point in time. God has willed for me to live and for him to live. And God has willed for us to live together in goodness. ... beyond that, deeper than all intractable logic, is God's Loving acceptance of The Slain Lamb, Jesus Christ risen in the heavens, exalted and embracing His having given, The Holy Spirit's healing work upon the earth, to and through those who will believe at any point in Christ's Open Mercy. Gracious God. God is gracious to me.)
Posted by nancy at March 8, 2010 09:07 AM