Hi!

It’s me again!

I’m excited today and wanted to tell you why.

I have a friend who loves to read.  She’s one of those who has a night stand stacked high with books.  She is smart enough to be able to read three or four at a time and remember what she’s read.  I enjoy reading but these days, for some reason, I have a hard time sitting still and focusing long enough to get through a book.  In actual fact I have started three books in the last few months and they have sat, half read, waiting.  I did just finish one, on the plane the other day.  It was good and I enjoyed it.

This friend of mine likes fiction and devotionals and the ones full of travel information and those that point her towards God and the most important God book of all, His words in print.  She once told me she liked to read anything worthwhile and she continues to remind me that life is short and we shouldn’t feel obligated to finish a book , if it becomes a chore.

It was a few weeks ago that we both realized there was a new book on the stands.

You may have heard me mention in past posts that I hesitate to use the phrase,

my favorite (colour, friend, food, book, author).  

 There is another phrase I am learning, the hard way, to use less.

I always.  You always.  Yes, that last one has gotten me into lots of pickles, backed me into a whole slew of corners over the years.  That’s a different story for another day.

But back to my favorite

 It just seems, when I say it, something happens to freedom and there is a sort of constriction, a closing of doors, lessening of willingness for something new, turning away from what could be.

Now, I would not call myself, well read.  I tend to read books that have been recommended by people I trust.  It’s a huge responsibility to recommend a book.  I mean, it takes hours to make your way through the labyrinth of a story.

To be clear, ideas from ‘excellent’ writers may inspire and motivate me, but they might leave you yawning and bleary eyed.

I want to say that this book, the new one on the stands, is written by my very FAVORITE author.  I say it casually and with an open attitude but I am pretty sure she is at number one on my list of writers.  There are 10 books in the series, with a smattering of extras off to the side.  I can’t remember another series of books that has consistently brought tears followed by laughter.  There was a time, it was years ago now, that I was away at a retreat with my husband’s firm.  There I was sitting on the beach with the first book in the series propped on my lap.  I wondered, as I wiped the tears from my eyes with the tissue I had somehow thought to put in my beach bag, followed by my loud burst of laughter, if perhaps there were people sitting nearby who might be wishing I would compose myself a bit better.  I sometimes care a lot about such things, but this book, these books, are so good I just don’t mind what They think.

A few days after my friend and I chatted about the newest installment of our dear friends in a tiny town somewhere to the south, we got together along with a few others.  She took a package out of her bag and said “I have something for you”.    I knew immediately what it was and must tell you, I think I squealed out loud (as only I can do.  Remember, I was the gal who was reprimanded on more than one occasion for being heard All The Way down the hall, when I was just a lamb).  “I am lending it to you”, she clarified.  That was fine with me.  I suggested she might like to read it first but because she is just that kind of friend, she said I should go ahead.

Two months have flown by.  This treasure has sat next to the window in my bedroom and I have looked at it every day, thinking I so wanted to dig in.  You see, I have a few obsessive issues and one of them is that I must be disciplined.  I had a couple of books on the go and although I longed to start on this beauty, I insisted I would finish the Not So Great book I was reading, first.  Yes, my friends words kept popping into my head, about not reading a book, just because.  Actually there is another reason I waited.  I love the anticipation of something good.  I love surprises (as long as they are good and don’t hurt).  This book was a surprise.  The author, at the end of #9 said The End.  It was a  farewell to our friends in our favorite small town.  It made me sad.  Now, with a revival of the story, a continuation of the journey to wisdom for our friend Father Tim and his loved ones, I am looking forward to traveling to that place and being part of their lives again.  However, once I read it, it will be over.  There may not be another.  Looking at that book, all wrapped up and waiting, makes me smile.

But today is the day.  My chores are half finished and my commitments are in the works of being taken care of.  I have a couple of errands to do and then, a little later, I am going to open the front cover and turn past the foreward.

I have taken it out of its wrapping.  The title is inviting and the jacket is beautiful.

The jacket is so beautiful in fact, that I have removed it like my dad taught me.  We don’t want it to get ripped or tattered so we set it aside while we read the book.  When we are finished we put the jacket back.

 I have already read the first sentence

“His wife was determined to march him to the country club this Saturday evening.  Worse, he’d have to stuff himself into his old tux like sausage into a casing.”

I am already smiling.

A good book is a sweet thing.  I will likely read it cover to cover in just a few hours.  Yes it is fiction and yes it is full of all kinds of wisdom.  I don’t know the author but I think she and I would have much to chat about if given the opportunity to visit over a cup of something.  Jan Karon puts everyday words together to say beautiful things.    her books are as beautiful on the inside as they look on the outside.  This makes me happy.