Sarah Louise writes about Kathleen Norris, Pt. 2

I own every book of Kathleen Norris' that I've read in hardcover. I have not read Dakota, or Little Girls in Church, so I own them in paperback.

I have given Dakota as a gift, which is rare for me (that I would give a gift of a book I've not read.) I have given Cloister Walk as a gift, I'm pretty sure.

The Cloister Walk, which was Kathleen's second memoir (Dakota being the first) was recommended to me by a co-worker at Fox Books, Gene. I think in an earlier life Gene was a pilot. He was a very thoughtful man, when I knew him, and I imagine he still is. He read a lot of great books, and he was good at recommending the right books to the right person. (Pretty important in retail books, as in librarianship.)

In my copy of CW, I just discovered a letter I started to Kathleen. It is in pencil, on the back side of drafts of my mother's kindergarten worksheets. "Thank you for sharing your words with the rest of us. A Catholic co-worker admonished me for months to read CW. I started and soon went out and got my own copy of the hardcover. When Amazing Grace was released, I bought it in the first week." (Aside: now, remember that I am a book slave--um, when I worked in retail I really couldn't afford those hardcovers.) (So this is a high compliment of KN's writing.)

I remember that week that I bought AG--I was depressed after an exhausting relationship. My copy of AG is water marked and missing its dust jacket because I read it in the bath. In it, I have a bookmark that I made of a quote by Father William McNamara. "We must be overwhelmed by the leonine surprise of his personal passionate prescence." I also have a folded up copy of the brochure that advertised that KN was coming to the Seminary, where I saw her recently.

I am exhausted like that now. The retreat was a battle of prayer. It was heart surgery. It was letting go of crap that, personally, was very hard to give up. At one point, on Saturday, I had a fight with Emily and I ran to the comfort of my car, where I found my headphones and listened to some praise music, and read Lamentations 3:22-24, "great is thy faithfulness." At another point, later that afternoon, I so wanted to just grab my car keys and run. Instead, I fell asleep. But I stuck it out, and at the end, Emily and I were dancing with glee for the work that had been done.

I am going in to work late today and Friday, as my life has expanded beyond the time I had. Ever grateful am I that I have that kind of flexibility. Tonight I'm hosting friends who are missionaries in Thailand. The group will be small. (But it will include their two sons!) I invited many people that I knew would not be able to come, as I knew they had Wednesday obligations. But this is an important event for me and I would rather invite them and have them RSVP "non" than have them hear from someone else I had the event and didn't invite them--and I wanted them to know they were important to me--because sharing food is one of the most intimate things we can do. Asking someone into your house, to share food with you, is intimate. So, I know that when these folks RSPD'd "non" it is not personal, but it still hurts. Ach, any rejection does, if our hearts are tender.

I have some pictures, wanna see?

It takes awhile (a while?) for them to download. These are pics from Sunday, when I went for the second week in a row to the Southside Works. I went again to the Cheesecake Factory. I had their baked potato soup. Last week, my movie started at 1:51. This week, it started at 1:15, so as soon as my food came, I asked for the check.

(Um, I just deleted all my pictures. Note to my fellow bloggers: "Recover post" LIES! Like a big dog.) Scuse me while I SCREAM! (Save, save, save. Whenever you add something, save!)

Okay, I'm back. Did I mention that I took this morning off so that I could continue cleaning house, not so that I could blog? But I made a lot of progress while the photos downloaded last time, so let's TRY. THIS. AGAIN. (As you were, smiling...)

Hey, it's not called Pink Sneakers for nothin'--and I am wearing jeans on both legs. D'ya see the mark on the right ankle strap? That's from when I kissed the pavement (yes, flat on my face) at Auto Advantage (that'll teach me to recycle my oil!) and tore my favorite brown pants. Tar-get fixed all, though.
This is my "view," the picture I must take again and again, just like Suse. I still think she wins, though. But notice the pink pavement...
Flowers by where I park my car in the summer at work (in the shade!). Mama would be proud.
More Southside Works. The captions were funny, before, but oh well.
More of my favorite fountain...
...makes the world go round (which is a song from my favorite musical, Carnival, which few folks have heard of. I wonder if Babs and Andrea know it?) (Sorry, couldn't find a link for Andrea. But all her post titles are songs from musicals. I think it's a brilliant technique and am quite jealous.)
Why did Arnold S. have to marry Maria Shriver?
So there would be a bullet-proof Kennedy. I wonder if Babs' cell phone still rings to the theme of the Godfather?

The date stamp tells me I've been working (on and off, you understand, and I can see large pieces of carpet now) on this post since 7:53 am. Ay, caramba!