The beginning again. Here we are.
Even though the rush to lament over how we fail at our yearly resolve to better ourselves begins just as soon as the new year dawns, I am still grateful for the freshness of it. The cycle of being given the opportunity to begin again, or to at least look out on the vista of days before you and hope. For transformation, for change, for growth.
My current state of resolutions is a bit hodgepodge. I relish the idea of self-reflection, but I also get pretty gun-shy and worry that I don't see myself clearly enough to know what needs working on and what doesn't. So I go about this tender-footed dance between what I have been thinking, feeling, sensing in my spirit, and an all out begging/searching/throw-myself at the the feet of Jesus session where I hope for a divine encounter with This is What We'll Work on This Year My Dear.
Aside from that, I do believe we are what we read (or quite a bit of it) and that what you soak in is what you exude in word and deed and thought, which means I have eagerly started on my current fare of book fodder and am hoping as it goes in, the coming out will bring with it a humbler, more aware, more gracious me than I was in 2013.
It is pretty obvious that there is a similar theme running through these books. I am okay with that, though it means the content is not as varied as I sometimes like my reading to be. Themes can be good for percolating and meditation, for a time. There are some things that need thinking on, and it strikes me how at times a book pile will gather that I did not purposely arrange, but seems suited to the current need of my soul. I love how a few good books can feed your spirit like that.
The Secret Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert: an English professor's journey into the Christian Faith
by Rosaria Butterfield.
Home: a Novel
by Marilynne Robinson
When I Was a Child I Read Books
by Marilynne Robinson
Traveling Mercies: Some Thoughts on Faith
by Anne Lamott
City of Tranquil Light: a novel
by Bo Caldwell
The Shaping of a Christian Family
by Elisabeth Elliot
You can never have too many book lists, can you? Looking forward to adding a few of yours to mine :-)
ReplyDeleteBlessings to you and your sweet family...may the peace of Christ be with you!