We can learn so much about the simple pleasures in life from observing children, like how fun it can be to splash in a puddle — even a small puddle with small feet — as my friend’s daughter reminded me this week. Or how fun it can be to get together with friends and just shoot some hoops, as her sons and my boys reminded us both.
It was a week that seemed to lend itself to a little puddle splashing, I have to say!
First, the National Catholic Reporter picked up a piece of mine for publication in their online and print edition, here. Part of the fun of having a piece like this go digital is reading the discussion in the comments box. Not every comments section blasts the writer. Good thoughts beget good thoughts, it seems, and I know mine did not come from me alone. I’m super happy to know others benefited from these words.
And then, though I have yet to get my copy, Ramona texted me a peek of where our book is situated in Ignatius’ latest catalog, and I was doubly happy to see that 1) It’s among the publisher’s best-selling titles right now and 2) just as exciting to me…
…it’s positioned near “Rome Sweet Home,” a book that was hugely influential to me years ago as I moved more fully into the bosom of the Catholic Church!
Scott and Kimberly Hahn’s account of coming home to “Rome” was so enlightening back when I was probing and questioning just where God wanted me to land in faith that I was convinced, after finishing it, that the place where I’d begun would do very well indeed. I am grateful every day for that turn home. So now, to see a story I helped bring to fruition in print form so close to this life-changing-to-me book prompts more than a few goosebumps.
When I mentioned this juxtaposition on Facebook, my friend Patti Armstrong said, “Imagine if someone told you that one day your book would be in the same pile as that one.” To which I replied: “I would not have believed it…But God’s plans for us are so much bigger than our own!” Let’s just say God’s generosity never fails to both humble and amaze.
I also became aware of a really great review done by the Sooner Catholic, a publication for the Archdiocese of Oklahoma, about our book!
Finally, an interview I did with Lauren Muzyka, foreword-writer extraordinaire, and the talented host, Alyssa Bormes, Sunday on Radio Maria’s “Catholic Kaleidoscope” show has become available in podcast form here. It’s about an hour long, but anyone wanting to really grasp the story of how our book, “Redeemed by Grace,” came to be will be blessed, I think, by the exchange. I’m going to circle back round to this interview soon, because something that was said caused my world to stop for just a moment, and I need to ruminate over it a bit, for the sake of all that is good. Soon and very soon!
Oh, I also must mention that Ramona couldn’t join us because she lost her voice that morning. I was more than a little panicked at the thought of having to fill a whole radio show about our relationship without her, but the show was to focus on the Holy Spirit’s movements in the formation of this book, and I should have known, said Holy Spirit would figure out a way to make it happen. At the final hour, Lauren said she’d give us a hand and, I think you’ll agree, she did a beautiful job of rounding out the story.
Now I feel like I should report something dreary, but there’s nothing really; not this week anyway. So I’ll take it while I can, hold onto these treasures, raise my face to heaven in gratitude, and stay on the lookout for the next little puddle.
Q4U: What puddle-splashing moments have you had this week?
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