Ordinary Grace

Our February gathering was foiled by the weather - snow and ice prevailed.  Missing seeing everyone and sharing friendship and discussion.  This month we had to make due with email contacts and comments.

Our book was a coming of age story which centered on a thirteen year son of a Methodist minister whose family lived in Minnesota.  The usually joyful summer turns grim when death visits in it's many forms: accident, natural, suicide, murder.  The characters were well developed and believable with their human imperfections, leaving us to wonder how we would describe our own families.  We watched them cope with death and their grief in many ways - withdrawal, denial, understanding, concern - as they learned about truth and the enduring grace of God.  Being set in the early 1960's, some of us could easily identify with the era of the story.  Though the story was a bit dark, the author showed a great gift with words and a positive spirit emerged through the tragedies.  We had many favorite quotes which were noted in our emails, so I will close with only one:
     "The dead are never far from us.  They're in our hearts and on our minds and in the end all that separates us from them is a single breath, on final puff of air."

Our March meeting will be held at Nika's home.  Looks like it will be on Wednesday, March 8th.  Looking forward to seeing everyone then!