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It was wonderful to have a fun book to read in about a week, although perhaps I read it a bit too often and too late... so, there are four women (Emma, Rudy, Lee, and Isabel) who become friends and stay friends through all of life's trials. Of which there are many, in great variety. Which seems normal, that each person would go through one or more hard things. That seems to be a constant in life -- that every individual will have challenges, which are opportunities to choose God or not. So often the easy choice is to choose self instead of choosing God's will and God's way.

Various members of this group have trouble with their mother, with kids, with husbands, with neighbors -- the full gamut. Nice that nobody is perfect. Although sometimes in life it seems like there are those who have their whole lives together. Which is a lie! No matter how healthy and whole we are, there are always areas that could use more work. And relationships that need to be examined again. Maybe relationships to things, to task, to needs, to people -- things so easily slip too far toward one tension or another. I used to think that life was a balancing act, but now I think of it more as many tensions which are pulling and pushing in various directions, so the healthiest place to be is where the tensions are even.

One of the women gets sick. Really sick. And they need to help take care of her and spend time with her and value her no matter what. Which is a challenge for them and all the others involved. Some of the ideas they come up with are interesting, such as a circle of healing. At a certain time every week all her close friends send good energy her way, or meditate for her, or some other such thing. And our souls do have power to do good or evil. But the Spirit of God has much more power than we ever do. There are plenty of people I've met who do things like the circle of healing, and expend much of their energy on things which seem good. But there is no real, eternal hope in that. I wish they knew Truth.

Title:	The Saving Graces
Author:	Patricia Gaffney
Date published:	1999
Genre:	Fiction
Number of pages:	506
Notes:	Borrowed from Sue

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A collection of essays and short stories asking questions about the future. About our world -- where we have come from, where we are going, how we are going to get there. These are good questions, asked in interesting ways, which makes them all the more palatable instead of frightening. Recently at church, we've been talking about the end times, and that the world is getting worse in many ways, so we need to be ready for the end. Which was an intriguing contrast to this book with ideas stretching far into the future. A strong tension -- but both have things to teach us today.

One idea that asks more thought is that of human purpose. Say that we do succeed in making the world a better place, a place that most, if not all, individuals have a chance to live and also to enjoy life. If there was then a generation that has everything they need and everything they want, what would they do with their time? Seems like there are a lot of people who are striving for the next best material thing to own or control. But what if they got all they wanted? How much more valuable to have a purpose, a calling, a vision -- than to have things, money, power.

Another piece is historical fiction (heavy on the fiction part), which asks the question of what one individual can affect. This idea keeps coming back to me in one form or another. My favorite ways of thinking about it is 'good ripples' and 'bad ripples' (thanks to Joan of Arcadia). Humans to have deep affects on others, regardless of their power. So often we get trapped by the idea that to have an impact we need to be powerful, have a strong influence, or control something. But sometimes all we need to do is be consistent in our choices and attitudes. Choosing well at most opportunities (good to strive for all, but that doesn't seem possible...) gives those around us hope of a different reality. I may not have brilliant ideas, but I can take what I believe and actually try to live it out. Asking questions that don't have easy answers seem like a good way to keep myself humble -- seeing myself clearly, being willing to learn from others, being excited when others are challenged to become more like Christ through me.

An essay titled 'The Self-Preventing Prophecy' also caught my attention. What an interesting idea that one way to help our world is to share stories of what could be. For example, Orwell's 1984 helped society to fear such intrusive objects and power, so that it hasn't happened. Other movies and books about our environment and what it is in danger of becoming have given environmentalists and others cause to care, and to act. There are places throughout the world that nature is being cared for well, and one could argue that this has something to do with the fear of what could be shown in stories. Often individuals become what they hear about themselves. If kids are constantly told by their parents, siblings, teachers, friends that they are dumb, they live down to that expectation and do poorly in school. But every once in a while, an individual (or society, or world) comes along that has enough courage and strength to fight that expectation and do the opposite. May we be such a society, and such a world -- that we are able to live into the good ideals and prove wrong the pessimistic prophecies.

Title:	Tomorrow Happens
Author:	David Brin
Date published:	2003
Genre:	Science Fiction - Essays & Short Stories
Number of pages:	219

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Laura Riding Jackson is an interesting literary figure. She was a fairly major poet, but very few people now have heard of her-- due to her own renunciation of poetry, and the fact that her poems were not included in major anthologies. Even when she wrote poetry she thought of it as a spiritual venture-- to communicate truth-- and when she renounced poetry, it was due to her conclusion that poetry was not truthful enough, could not go far enough towards truth.

Her poems tend to be fairly spare (certainly not full of imagery or metaphor) and philsophical, and challenging to follow mentally. Her view of poetry is spiritual, but she is very scornful towards traditional religious beliefs (as particularly evident in two Christmas poems, but elsewhere as well), and this made it difficult to me to want to follow her challenging train of thought completely.

Reading this many pages of poetry by anyone is challenging, but particularly so in this case; I feel like I didn't spend enough time to really understand the poems, and grasp only the smallest fraction of what is going on here. It was not at all helpful to read Riding's preface from the 1938 edition of this collection, where she says that poetry should be read and written for the same reasons, and that since her work is written with all of the reasons of poetry, if her readers would only read the poems with the same reasons they would not find her poetry difficult.

Some of the poems were quite enjoyable (although I can't help but feel I liked the "simpler" poems since those were the ones I understood more easily). Here is one of my favorites.

The Troubles of a Book

The trouble of a book is first to be
No thought to nobody,
Then to lie as long unwritten
As it will lie unread,
Then to build word for word an author
And occupy his head
Until the head declares vacancy
To make full publication
Of running empty.

The trouble of a book is secondly
To keep awake and ready
And listening like an innkeeper,
Wishing, not wishing for a guest,
Torn between hope of no rest
And hope of rest.
Uncertainly the pages doze
And blink open to passing fingers
With landlord smile, then close.

The trouble of a book is thirdly
To speak its sermon, the look the other way,
Arous commotion in the margin,
Where tongue meets the eye,
But claim no experience of panic,
No complicity in the outcry.
The ordeal of a book is to give no hint
Of ordeal, to be flat and witless
Of the upright sense of print.

The trouble of a book is chiefly
To be nothing but book outwardly;
To wear binding like binding,
Bury itself in book-death,
Yet to feel all but book;
To breathe live words, yet with the breath
Of letters; to address liveliness
In reading eyes, be answered with
letters and bookishness.

Title:	The Poems of Laura Riding: A new edition of the 1938 collection
Author:	Laura (Riding) Jackson
Date published:	1980
Genre:	Poetry
Number of pages:	419

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Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett's humorous take on the apocalypse-- the antichrist has been misplaced (accidentally switched and given to the wrong family at birth). The two central characters are an angel and a demon, the field agents of heaven and hell who have more in common with each other than their respective home bases. In fact, they go way back-- all the way back to the graden of Eden. Crowley (then called Crawly) was the serpentine tempter, and Aziraphale was the Angel who was supposed to stand guard Eden to keep Adam and Even from coming back (in fact, he thought they looked cold so he gave them his flaming sword to keep warm). Aziraphale and Crawley both really like Earth and humans and they don't want everything destroyed in the coming Armageddon.

This is a really funny book-- I think I was laughing within the first few pages. There are even footnotes which are quite hilarious (one footnote explains the British money system, and then states that they never went to a metric system because it would be too complicated). Even the "about the author" paragraphs made me laugh. I discovered, however, that one of the trade-offs with a humorous novel like this is that it's harder to get invested in the characters-- I didn't really care that much about the apocalypse because I knew the world wouldn't be destroyed (since that wouldn't be funny).

Title:	Good Omens
Author:	Neil Gaiman, Terry Pratchett
Date published:	1990
Genre:	Science Fiction, Humor
Number of pages:	367

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Read this book during the contemplative current. Read it slowly, practicing the suggestions at the end of each chapter for a week or two -- because Sabbath is not just something that you read about, but something that must be done and practiced and set aside because if not it gets forgotten, ignored, and compartmentalized. I am glad to be part of an organization that makes a point to carve out time for Sabbath.

Sabbath as -- mindfulness, rest, refreshment, receptivity, release, refocusing. So often Sunday is just a day to do all the tasks there aren't time for during the week. But -- God meant it to be much more. We are called to take time to enjoy Him. To look forward and backward. To remember what God has done. To do different activities. To have a different pace of life. To let that one day affect all our other days. This book was a challenge to me, because I do not value Sabbath as much as I could or would like to. This is an area I can grow in and hope I continue to grow in. That my definition of rest, release, Sabbath (etc.) would become deeper.

Title:	Catch Your Breath: God's Invitation to Sabbath Rest
Author:	Don Postema
Date published:	1997
Genre:	Spiritual
Number of pages:	88
Notes:	Read with LA team

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