Memoir
Wynne Leon’s marvelous and inspirational memoir begins with the most upbeat paragraph about a somber occasion that I think I have ever read. I was immediately captured! Here are the first few sentences:
There is nothing like a funeral for a pastor. It feels like a graduation ceremony for someone who has spent his whole life working towards the ultimate advanced degree. Over 1200 people came to celebrate Dad and more watched it live-stream on the Internet—a large group that embodied a singular feeling . . .
Thus begins Leon’s reflection on her father, her family, and the journeys that shaped them. I found Leon’s well executed mission to honor, understand, and memorialize her beloved father, while also processing her own secular and spiritual quests, to be honest, uplifting, thoughtful and fascinating. I loved reading also about her mother, Carolyn, and her short courtship and long marriage to her father, Dick. They were surely a match made in heaven!
There is a church outside my door.
There is much to recommend in this book: real life examples of what a life of service can be, what incarnational ministry is and how it served Dick during his time working as a missionary in India, and as a Presbyterian minister in the Philippines and the U.S., the love of family and friends, the divergent paths we take to find our own way to spiritual, psychological and emotional health, meditation practice, self-examination, and everything between birth and death. It is somehow light and deep at the same time, an accessible and entertaining look into humanity’s search for and need for meaning. I love this book!
LakeArrowheadLadyWriter 