a wonderful read

Joy is starting book club back up. She sent out an email and I do love to read and used to really enjoy going to book club. The last few years I haven't gone. Too busy? Inconvenient times? Titles I didn't want to read? I don't know why really Anyway when she sent out the invite I thought it would be fun. Gathering and chatting and reading are always good :)

So I got the book, came highly praised and recommended. Yesterday I was finished with some of the Christmas fluff I had been enjoying and turned to it.

Page one: a young shepard boy watches his flocks on the hillside in Spain. I thought: Great, just great. How is this going to be good? thank goodness it's short.
By page three I was hooked.

I really liked it. About a third of the way into it I was at McD with Lu and she was playing and I was reading (a great alternative for an outdoor playground in the winter) and I had to stop and call Joy. Do you know anything about the author? She said she didn't and I didn't but his work was surprising me. He had many ideas that were profound and moved me and caused me to think. Some that were not new to me but surprising in a secular context. Some that were new and interesting.

Of late I had been thinking of happiness and what causes some people to live a life that is truer to their inner desires. What makes one family sell all they have, hop on a boat and sail for a year living and working together, living their dream. Or someone to quit a great job he's had for years and start medical school as an older student because he was called and beckoned and dreamed it. Or .______________(fill in the blank with whatever dream you wish) While others allow circumstance to dictate their path. The path of least resistance and least joy and fulfillment. Why do some people know what they want and see opportunity and others put their heads down and trudge through without seeking?

This book spoke of these things and more. I am anxious to go and hear what others thought and got out of it.

So, Go. Read. Share.