Sunday/My Review of Traveling Mercies

It is raining outside and it is Sunday. I have that familiar melancholy feeling that is particular to Sundays. It has been raining all day. We got up, had breakfast, an almond butter, banana and honey sandwich on Amanda's homemade bread, coffee, went to church, came home, ate lunch, a pan seared chicken breast on arugula with blue cheese, walnuts, and Balsamic vinaigrette, went to sleep for about two hours, got up, ate dinner, chicken on brown rice with bacon and green beans, then turned on 60 Minutes. I left out three Lindt dark chocolate truffles (maybe four but who's counting) for dessert after lunch, and a Stockyard oatmeal stout with supper. Throw in some twitter and Facebook checks, and that's my Sunday so far. I also picked some pink peonies and put them in a vase on the coffee table. They smell like heaven.

Every time I look out the rain is still coming down. Sometimes hard, sometimes soft, but always coming down.

I finished Anne Lamott's Traveling Mercies while we were in the northeast over the past week. I recommend it for anybody who can appreciate a real Christian's bone honest struggle through addiction, parents, real life, real problems. It has caused me to take an honest look at what I write and ask myself if I am willing to be that honest. Am I willing to really share my truest self the way she does in this book? I'm telling you, it's raw.

Those of us who grew up in the church learned early the way we speak in church, or to people who we know to be Christians. We know the way we speak around our peers at school and what we can get away with around our Papaw who just doesn't give a damn, our Daddy, our Mamma, and certain cousins. One gets the feeling reading Anne's book that she did not pick up that habit. She just lets it fly.

I'm not saying that I want to develop my foul language skills to her level, but there is something so irresistibly appealing about someone who functions so freely outside the confines other's expectations. I have to admit, in my life there have been so many times when I have failed miserably at this. Maybe that's why her writing appeals to me so much.

Sometimes it feels like our "Christian walk" is nothing more than a weak set of rules that should be adhered to around certain people at certain times. I have no desire to be that kind of Christian. I want to be transformed by the renewing of my mind! Sure, I want to be kind, and aware of others' sensibilities, but I refuse to be a slave to them.

By adjusting my persona to fit my company, really, who am I fooling? I'm not even fooling myself! Much less anybody else, and least of all God. So for a healthy dose of good humor, a heartfelt search for God, and a lot of practical wisdom, read Anne Lamott's Traveling Mercies.