"Ancient of Days"

I just finished another amazing book.  "Ancient of Days" by Michael Bishop.  It was recommended by Orson Scott Card in one of his book introductions, so I had to read it.  And, I'm very glad I did.

I've literally just finished it and am still in its thrall.  It's having its way with me and I'm glad to surrender.  It's deeply impressed me and taken me through almost every emotion.  It has also stimulated my mind and triggered spiritual thoughts.  The characters, though not all particularly likeable, were very relatable.  I cared about them and ached for and with them.  The story totally drew me in and took me on a journey of the soul.

It brought up ideas and situations that were new to me.  It was joyful and wrenching, sad and uplifting.  It touches on what it means to be human, and what it means to love past all appearances and preconceptions.  It's brave and beautiful, thinking and feeling.

Good books are bridges to new thoughts, new feelings, new perceptions, and new paradigms.  They transport you multidimensionally into new realms of reality.  And, we're changed and expanded by reading them.  This is such a book.

I'm a voracious reader, I have been all my life.  I love to disappear into a good book.  I love a book that grips me and holds me and doesn't let me go, and I mourn the end of it.  This book will live with me now, as the great ones do.  They become part of us and continue to shape us as Life goes forward.  The seeds they plant continue to grow in us and take form in many deep and interesting ways.

I am, once again, brought to my knees in gratitude.  Gratitude for Orson Scott Card's recommendation, gratitude for the beauty of Michael Bishop's work, and gratitude for the gifts of what it has seeded in me.  I live.  I grow.  I expand.  I am.