Circle of Quiet

My friend Kate has a list of books that she has recently read on her blog…it’s a nice little feature. I’m thinking about adding it to mine as well, mainly so I can keep track of my reading jaunts. Anyways, I saw that she had recently read Circle of Quiet by Madeline L’Engle, so I decided to pull out my own dogeared copy and give it another whirl. (Yes, it is where I got the name for my blog…hopefully L’Engle won’t mind)

The book was full of turned over corners, sticky notes, and numbered slips of paper. I used the book as one of the texts for a readers theatre piece I did in college, and I guess I never took out the markers. I also found a note inside the front cover from my Dad, who gave me the book. He said it was a book to read…and read again…

And it has been. I have rifled through the pages more than a few times, each time taking something new away from it…one of the marks of a good book.

It also has been interesting to read it at different stages of my life. Right now, I can appreciate it differently, because she references teaching experiences, parenting young children, marriage…all these things that I could only imagine when I read it in, say, college. Now…I get it.

When she writes about being unself-conscious and how it is like a child being totally absorbed in play, I can not only understand it theoretically, but I can also see it through watching my kids do that very thing. When she talks about finding that quiet place to work in a house full of children, I look around and see that in my everyday life too.

L’Engle masterfully creates these connecting points between her experiences and her readers. I am so looking forward to diving in to see what I can discover about myself this time around. I’m sure I won’t be disappointed.

— Post From My iPhone