As a child I was an avid reader. Whenever I finished my schoolwork I chose reading over any of the other out of seat options we were given. I often took a book and read during lunch break and recess.
Once I got home I took whatever book I was reading and spent the afternoon in a chair in my parents’ bedroom reading until dinner. I was that kid who took a flashlight to bed and read until I got caught in the middle of the night with a light on.
I loved series books. I read all of Pearl S. Bucks books about the wild of Alaska. I imagined myself to be part of prairie life when I devoured all of the books written by Laura Ingels Wilder. I read the Mary Poppins books in a few days. I was particularly attached to mysteries. I read through Nancy Drew books and Grace Livingston Hill books and Agatha Christie books regularly. I checked out the library’s maximum each week and chose to walk home from high school just so I could see what new mysteries were available every Wednesday.
As an adult I still love a good mystery although now I am more prone to listen to one on tape while I am driving or walking.
Bob and I are prone to watch British murder mysteries over other types of Series television.
I do particularly like the endings where a solution is found, a lesson is learned, good wins over evil, families are reunited and love rules the day.
Life’s mysteries do not fit into those neat little happy endings all of the time. While I often wish that they did, I wonder what sort of people we would be if we didn’t have to ponder over them so much?
~Lydia Patrick
Welcome Mystery…*
Rev. Dr. Rebekah A. Savage
Permission Secured by Soul Matters
As people of faith and wonder,
We welcome in the delight of mystery, the awe of unfolding adventures,
the expansiveness of what it means to behold mystery as a gift to the imagination.
Too often we relax into routines, find comfort in old habits and give in to the confines of our lives.
In this time of worship together,
May our hearts be nudged open to what may be.
May our Spirits be wrapped in curiosity to seek Mystery, and welcome Her in.
May our time together this day remind us to stay open,
stay inquisitive of what we do not yet understand,
and be inspired to stretch ourselves into new ways of being.
Welcome Mystery, welcome into our hearts and our time of worship together.
Lydia, I too love a good mystery and listen to them as audio books all the time. I love your reflection, and I have pondered this as well, how the mysteries in our lives are seldom solved as neatly as an Agatha Christie novel.