I know you'll be surprised---I'm reading a book

I don't often read books and usually when I do it is because they speak to me. Most of what I read is for knowledge and not for fictional pleasure although I certainly enjoy Nicholas Sparks' books because they are somewhat based on true stories and I connect with them. When I was younger I spent a lot of time engrossed in books, and books that were strictly fictional in nature. I used books to get where I couldn't go. They were my escape, my fantasy land.

Now that I am older, I really could care less about living in fantasy land, although an occasional journey there never hurt anyone :). I am more about living in reality. I do daydream, but my daydreams are usually more goal oriented and about things that could, in theory, be achieved. I don't have much of an attention span for books anymore, although arguably I should be more well read, but when I do read, I usually really, really enjoy the book because it offers me something.

What I want to share is something I read in a book I am currently reading---I'll likely finish the book tonight and then I'll consider reading another (shocker).

First, a little background. The book is by an Episcopal priest. I've known of her for years as she was formerly on the staff that I was now formerly on...just not during the same time frame. I'd just never read any of her books, or any other books by Episcopal priests for that matter.

It's actually a great book.

For context, the following was a description of what warms the authors soul, where she met God...

"I am floating in this field, held up toward the sun by the black dirt under my back. I am this earth's child, and I know it. When I am done lying here, I will visit the small crystal stream that runs through this field to see what is moving in it today. The Presence will be there too, lighting up everything that moves. I have met salamanders there, tadpoles, crayfish, and water bugs. I have watched the moss on the bottom ripple as the water runs over it. Years later, I will discover that this was no crystal stream but a drainage ditch. The difference between the two descriptions of the same place will screw with my sense of reality for a long time. Is the Divine Presence in the world, or in my eye?"

I find this particularly insightful and humorous because I learned long ago that I most often do not see the world as others do. There have been many times that I have gotten my feelings hurt over that because I felt that meant my perception was incorrect and wrong.

Now, as I grow older, I am becoming aware of how much of a blessing uniqueness can be and how others sometimes wish for it in themselves.

It really doesn't matter whether the crystal stream is a drainage ditch, or even whether the Divine Presence is in the world or in my eye...either way, there is a Divine Presence and either way, the stream is a gift to my soul.

The book, by the way is "Leaving Church: A Memoir of Faith" by Barbara Brown Taylor.

What got me reading this book was a suggestion made by a parishioner at the church where I work. The parishioner suggested doing some type of study, seminar, etc. on the topic of "what next in my life" and I started looking for books or people that might speak to this. The priest I work for said he believed that hundreds of folks could identify with that question, and I agree. I ask myself that regularly and I don't always know the answer. The basis of Barbara's book is answering that question in her life, and in a way she didn't expect.