Reading Material

The written word is my passion, my addiction and my hobby, I suppose. Always has been, as far back as I can recall, which is about 4th grade, when I began the Bobsy Twin series (I believe that was the title, baby boomers will recall!) and couldn't stop. My nose was often in a book of any kind and over the years, it would depend on where I was at that particular time in my life as to what you would see on the nightstand or shelves. All forms of genre could be found but I rarely read autobiographies or true to life stories, mostly fiction and self-help, then the stage of leadership books and manuals, how to motivate and work with people, whatever came my way. Not long ago, a friend was over and scanned the many books lined on the desk in my "reading room", and another friend asked what she was looking at, and she replied that you can tell a lot about a person when you look at the title of books they have close at hand. So I took a look through her eyes, and saw titles such as "The Heavenly Man", "A Broken Heart Still Beats", "Surviving the Losses in Your Live", "90 Minutes in Heaven", "Seven Choices: Steps in Grieving", "The Power of Now", well, you get the picture. There are also assorted Jodo Piccoult selections, my new favorite author, who my sister wonders how I can read right now...I wonder that too, given the content of her books, high school shootings, dying of cancer, child abductions, and so on. Are those dark topics or just realities in my life, in all of our lives? I claim to love the way in which this author shares the written word, but must admit that she draws me in from the first page and I am caught up in the relationships and lives that made these people who they are, and not only am I hooked, I am intrigued. I know people just like every one I meet in her books, and maybe, just maybe I AM one of those characters.

A book not mentioned above, but a staple on my nightstand, is "The Shack", a book that as soon as I finished it, I began it again. That isn't all that rare for me, for all the books on my shelf find me weaving in and out of them, once finished, to maybe find that one chapter again that helped so much, or to read about that experience now that I am in a different place. But "The Shack", well, that hit home in many ways, starting with the profound loss at the beginning. The book is part fiction, part non-fiction and some of it is up to the reader to determine. You may walk away from this reading experience and ask, did Mac really spend a weekend with God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit? One may suggest the absurdity of it all, that it was made up madness at its best. One may wonder how someone's mind could create such a vivid, real, yet remote experience. One may not "get it" at all and abandon the book as a hoax or ploy. And all of that is okay for the experience of reading it as as unique as the individual's life, journey, past, present or future.

I believe each time I read this book, I will be in a different place, as they say, thus, will gain something different than the time before. When I read it this fall, many emotions played into it and I had to sort out where I was coming from. I recalled what I would perceive as my own "shack" moment, when I knew God was always with me, sending the Holy Spirit through me, I recalled moments when I had what I thought was a dream, but upon waking up, knew it was not a dream in the true sense, it was the voice of a loving Father talking to and through me, and I naturally spend the entire book grieving with this earthly father who in an instant lost his child, once again confirming the notion that all we have is this moment in time.

I didn't need "The Shack" to confirm for me that God works His own magic and miracles in each of our lives, that a presence more powerful than us is at work, and that we are never alone, but it was definitely a life changing book to read, one for the Christmas lists. I have already given out 6 copies and I don't expect one of us to interpret it the same at all, but for those of us who are on the quest to look deeper, make sense of life, death, eternity, love, destiny, after-life, it is a good read!