it feels strange to post about a book titled Leaving Church (by Barbara Brown Taylor), just when Jak and i are returning to church after a quasi-hiatus (but i’ll post more on that later).

Leaving Church is writing in three parts, or movements if you will: finding, losing, and keeping.

in the first part, finding, Taylor – an episcopal priest – talks about her call to ministry and her move from a church in the city to pastoring one in a rural town in north georgia. ministry, and ministry in that church, are clearly a vocation she loves and feels called to. in part two, losing, she tells of the loss of the call to that ministry and that church, a call to come out of the work she has loved and into a different life altogether. in the final part, keeping, she pulls the previous sections – finding and losing – together as she writes about why she needed to lose what she’d found, how her life has changed, and what she has kept through her learning and experiences.

it’s a beautiful book. i really enjoyed Taylor’s writing, but since i actually finished the book almost two months ago, i’m short on details right now. i’ve had this post hanging out half writing for a more than a month, and figured that since i haven’t posted anything in so long, it’d be better to get this up rather than worry about figuring out the details.

a new year has just begun, so i thought i’d start it off with a rundown of the one that has just ended.

significant moments:
in may, after too many years in and out of college, i finally finished with a BA in psychology from boston college.
and in may, Jak graduated with his MDiv from gordon-conwell.
in the middle of the summer (after i’d finally finished college), i finally received a diagnosis for my adhd.
this summer we also took our first trip to maine, because we couldn’t bring ourselves to leave new england without having seen the famous maine coast.
in august, Jak and i drove our car and a truck with our two cats across the country for a week, as we moved from boston to seattle.
in september, Jak was accepted into the spiritual direction certificate program at mars hill grad school, and we both began our classes there.
and throughout the year, we forged and strengthened many wonderful friendships with some truly amazing people.
in november, my grandmother passed away and we attended her memorial service in panama.
so it was a year of grand celebrations and one of losses as well.

favorite books of 2006:
it’s hard to remember everything i’ve read this year, especially those things that came before i began this blog. so i’ll just list a few memorable books (with links to my previous comments about the ones i’ve posted about) off the top of my head, in no particular order.
1. christ the lord: out of egypt by Anne Rice
2. a generous orthodoxy: by Brian McLaren
3. velvet elvis: by Rob Bell
4. driven to distraction: by Ned Hallowell
5. becoming attached: by Robert Karen
6. scattered: by Gabor Mate
7. a bright red scream: by Marilee Strong
8. the pressure’s off: by Larry Crabb
9. through painted deserts: by Donald Miller
10. good omens: by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett