Parker J. Palmer wrote: “The marvelous thing about learning from a story is that a story never ends, so our learning from it need not end either.” Whether the story’s last line is “And they lived happily ever after” or the main character rides off into the sunset, stories live on inside me. No day is complete without my reading America magazine or a historical novel or a spiritual book. The next day I wonder how the historical characters are doing, as if they’re still churning butter or outsmarting the Gestapo. The features in America become conversation starters at dinner. A spiritual book may create an openness in me for the next day’s lectionary readings. Like yeast in dough the lessons ferment in me.
Having just finished The Promise of Dawn by Lauraine Snelling, I have learned about sticking up for myself as Signe did, about growing in affection and respect as her husband Rune did, about the ability to soften hardened hearts as two families, one kind and dependent, the other demanding and cruel, shared one roof.
As Macrina Wiederkehr suggests, “Read with a vulnerable heart. Expect to be blessed in the reading,” and the learning will not end.
