Books Lost, Found and Read

I love books! If a place has plants and books, it feels like home to me. Maybe that's because I was born at home in my dad's study (one of the only rooms in the house besides the living room that had heat) where there were lots of books, and my mom always had lots of house plants. I don't watch much TV, but I do enjoy reading.

Unfortunately for the past few years I haven't been able to read very much because of my eye problems two years ago (which, in hind sight, might have been the beginning of this cancer) and now the chemo treatments. However, I try to read a bit now and then.

So, about Books Lost, Found and Read in the last few months:

Lost: Did I lend this book to you?  I seem to have misplaced it or lent it to someone.  It's a great vegetable gardening book written by a Torontonian, so the information applies to the weather conditions in the Toronto area.  It features "incredible edibles" with a description of each plant, how to grow it, a large colour photo and a recipe. I'm really hoping to find it again.

Found:  Is it yours?  This book was lying around in our living room so Gerard read it, but it's not ours.  We are racking our brains trying to remember if someone lent it to us.  Is it yours?  We'd be happy to return it to you.

Read: This garden statuary (is there such a word?) in J & M's back yard and a similar one at my brother's house motivated me to do a little research about St. Francis of Assisi who wrote the well-known song, "Make Me a Channel of Your Peace".  St. Francis grew up in luxury, but later chose a life of humility, poverty, and of service to God.  He loved birds and animials, the poor and the neglected. He founded the Franciscan Order and is known as the patron saint of animals and the environment.  It is customary for Anglican and Catholic churches to hold ceremonies blessing animals on his feast day of October 4.

I've been trying to read this book because I've heard it referred to many times.  I've also heard Philip Yancey speak once and really appreciate his personable and humble style and the way he explains difficult concepts using everyday, down-to-earth examples.  However, because of my short attention span and difficulty with reading at times, it's taking me a long time to read it.  I'm about half way so far.

I actually found this copy of "The Message" at Value Village.  It is Eugene Peterson's translation of the Bible in every day street language.  When I read this translation I sometimes read and notice things that I can't remember ever having heard before.  I guess it's because it sounds so different in this version. It makes me cringe sometimes, sounding almost sacreligious. I actually don't really like it, but the NIV translation is so familiar to me that when I read it I catch myself skimming over sections because I know them almost off by heart, and then end up missing the actual message.  So even though I much prefer the NIV translation, I'm reading this one for now to hear things in a fresh new way.

Does it seem like everyone is talking about de-cluttering or purging these days, or is it just me?  Maybe it's because people our age (50's/60's) are becoming empty nesters and/or thinking about down-sizing.  I've seen TV shows, magazine articles, and even whole books about decluttering.  It's like when you learn a new word; all of a sudden it seems to show up everywhere! 

A few months ago when we re-arranged some things in our house to make room for Henry, Melanie, and Ken to live with us for a while, I came across all kinds of things that made me wonder, "Why do we have all this stuff?!"  Alida was a great help in sorting and encouraging me to purge.  We got a little tiny start on what could all be sorted and cleaned up around here.  The last time I came home from the hospital all that clutter and stuff really overwhelmed me.  I'm hoping to get back to the de-cluttering and purging sometime very soon.  I'll keep you posted.