Picked this up from the library "Book Nook." I wonder if this will have any special resonance for me now as I observe my mom through her passage to dying.

February 9, 2004 - A very quick read, kind of like poetry. The central character is a nun in a contemplative order whose migraines are a gateway to religious vision. Then, as she learns the migraines are actually due to epileptic seizures, she must decide whether to have corrective surgery, and possibly lose her ecstatic vision. What to do? What to do? I'm intrigued by the idea of fulfillment through humble tasks, and service to others as a means of self-discovery. (Remember Natalie Goldberg's "Writing Down the Bones," in which she describes how she does the cleaning at the ashram of her Zen master?) I got a nice sense of this nun as a real person with human frailites and understandable motivations; I think the author does a pretty good job of humanizing her. (Incidentally, I did not especially find any death-related, or end-of-life, guidance here. I guess that, just because a book deals with spiritual issues, it does not ncessarily implicate death and dying.)

I think I'll give the new Catholic church another shot as a release spot for this one. I did leave another book about a saintly nun there a few months ago but, as with every other book I've ever released, it's vanished without a peep. Hmmm...I wonder if it sould be better to time it to services, when more people are around.

Released on Monday, February 09, 2004 at Annunciation Catholic Church in Kamuela, Hawaii USA.

on the information brochure shelf in the main church area.