Thursday, January 6, 2011

Book Number 1...Finished!

I've finished one of my book choices for January; The Pace of a Hen by Josephine Moffett Benton. This is a book that I'll probably read every year or so. It's short, only 100 pages, but just full of wisdom and things to think on.

Here's a paragraph about a poetry group she was involved in that describes how I'd like for my own bookgroup to be. The chapter is entitled Sacred Idleness.

But once more we moved. And again heart's ease was found in a creative reading and writing group that came to be known by the sign of welcome upon the front door, "Poets Walk In." On first and third Tuesday afternoons we who opened the door walked in, to beauty and delight and imagination and love. We left outside the unfinished ironing, the unsolved budget, our mundane cares. Here for two hours we would not "look before or after, or pine for what is not, but live in the holy carelessness of the eternal now."

I think that's a lovely description of a couple hours hidden away in the heart of a cozy home with like-minded sisters who share a love of the written word. I started my bookgroup twelve years ago when my youngest was a baby. I brought the world to me when I needed to be homebound most of the time. It's been going strong ever since. Members have come and gone, and some years are better than others.

But it's a time I anticipate every month, not only for the yummy tea we have, but for the communion with each other and with authors past and present.

2 comments:

Lisa Richards said...

This is a book I've wanted to read for a long time, in fact, I have a quote from it on my blog:

Our minds need many kinds of exercise, and creativity which uses mind and muscles is a source of balance and a wellspring of joy. A woman who walks in the woods, who makes a lampshade, who bakes a loaf of bread, who refinishes an old chair, has not time for bitterness and depression.
-The Pace of a Hen by Josephine Moffett Benton

Your bookgroup sounds wonderful! I love to write and it would be so much fun to do something like that!

Pom Pom said...

I have it. I'll go dig it up right now!