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It took me just one moment to overcome my dislike for the colour pink as I picked up this book. Once it was open, I couldn’t see the cover any more, and I sank into a world of personal proportions, filled with a spectrum of vastly different characters, tensions, and situations. A go-getter career woman loses her job and has a cancer scare on the same day. In the ensuing turmoil, Karen accepts an invitation to visit her sister on the family farm, where voices from the past begin to whisper to her of the real meaning of life. A little girl from the neighbourhood, visits from long-lost relatives, letters from a great-aunt, and a hidden message written by a deceased grandmother all combine to open Karen’s heart like she never imagined possible. Her unexpected plunge into directing a children’s holiday programme at church is an epiphany to delight the heart as she discovers a passion she never knew she had. Reading this book is like living Karen’s life for a few short weeks. Around every corner wait surprises – sounds, smells, feelings, reconciliations, and finally new determination to change the way life has been for so long. Karen’s emotional state begins to find healing in the strangest places as the relationships to both her husband and her sister go through a new birthing. It’s all about that unnerving time that lies between losing one life-purpose and finding another, and you can actually feel the shifts and changes in her soul as the days go by. Rediscovering her own faith, she is a joy to behold. On several occasions I was all but moved to tears by her conversations with children. It all takes place amidst the bustle and silence of ordinary life… little kids eating messily and adult sisters baking cookies, the chaos created by a hundred children who want to sing, a Baptist preacher doing the chicken dance, or Karen’s fully-dressed dive into a cool creek, signalling in a way her new beginning. Through it all, the trees are whispering their songs into her heart, calling back memories of childhood. This is a very enjoyable read, a story that has the power to transport you to a different place and do things inside of you. The journey from mere existence towards real fulfillment is one that many people will be able to relate to. Such a common human experience, yet the way it’s told here with humour, good nature, honesty and spirituality – it has the strength to get into your soul. Don’t miss this one, particularly if you’ve been going through hard times yourself. Maybe, just maybe, this could be the ray of hope you’ve been waiting for.
Reviewed by Grace |
THE LANGUAGE OF SYCAMORES
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