December 2019 Archives

Sometimes I am just meant to read a book and it finds its way to me or vice versa; that was my experience with Rumi’s Daughter. After my mother died, I reconnected with my cousin and visited him in Oregon. He “just happened” to have this book on his coffee table and it beckoned to me. Once I started reading, I could not put it down. One of the few fictional books I have read in the last ten years, it is more than a love story—it is a Love and Grace story, a Way of unlearning much like that of The Shack.

This book, The Gift: Poems By Hafiz The Great Sufi Master, (Translations by Daniel Ladinsky) is not a book I have read cover to cover. Instead it is one which when moved to do so, I open randomly and skim through until a particular poem has caught my attention. Once captured, I read through the composition slowly, several times, and then sit with it for a while. Reading his poetry is like listening to and sharing time with a beloved friend. And much like my time with dear friends, I usually end up crying and laughing at the same time—my favorite emotion.

Other than the Bible, most recently the Complete Jewish Study Bible, no other book has had a greater impact on my understanding of God than The Shack by Wm. Paul Young. Like the Bible, I have read it through many times—the pages are dog-eared, meaningful passages are underlined (and have been quoted on this site) and I have written inspired thoughts in the margins. Mr. Young genuinely captures the Truth, Beauty, and Grace of the Holy Trinity and Her Love that makes us One. This book is especially worthwhile for those who question why “bad” things happen.