Snippet Monday

I am a veracious reader. I read every day. I get up early in the morning, 5:30, so that I can fit some reading in before work, and I always end my day reading. I am also an insomniac so at night when I am reading in bed I have to keep looking at the clock. If I don't I can read right through the night. I try to put the book down by 12 or 12:30.

I live on a very tight budget, which does not include the purchase of very many new books. I also work long hours and my weekend in stuffed with domestic chores and keeping the family and home together, so regular trips to the library is not a good option either. (Small town libraries have short hours.) But I have my ways. I know when the library is giving away discards and I arrive with bags and bags to fill up. And once a year I hit up the Book Both at Congé just before they shut it down, when paperbacks go for 25 cents and hardbacks for 50. I aways have a stack of books waiting to be read.

But, as you can surmise, these books are not your current best sellers. In fact, many of them are very old, very dated books. They have that old book smell. Each one has something to offer. I tend to mark little snippets of intriguing thoughts in each book.

So, I thought that Mondays could be Snippet Day. But don't rush out looking for the book. You more than likely want be able to find it. And I know your snippets would be different than mine but...

Father Melancholy's Daughter, by Gail Godwin
“...what you said in that sermon about the ways we can choose to carry our crosses really hit home. You said we can just flat out deny we have a cross, or we can refuse to carry it, or we can whine and blame everybody else. Or, you said, we can just accept it and carry it in such a way that it builds our strength and serves as an example for others. You said we could incorporate it into our style and make that style a fine and splendid thing that can have meaning for ourselves and others.”

“... “People have so many definitions of sin,” I said. “Do you have one?” ... “A falling short from your totality,” he said. “Choosing to live in ways you know interfere with the harmony of that totality.” ... “But how do you know what your totality is?” “You learn. You unlearn. You pay attention. You feel where things balance for you and where they don't.”