Exactly

Our book club finally met again, gathered around Lydia Grace's beautiful table on a Sunday afternoon.

Did we need the food? Probably not!

 But our gatherings tend to be festive and celebrations of friendship,
and sharing our lives over what we have read together. 

We read a memoir, The Exact Place. It touched us all deeply. We discussed the
author's childhood--she grew up poor, and yearning for love from her stepfather.

She writes: "But while courting my step-father, an unexpected grace grew in my heart; I was the one who fell, headlong, for the world around me. The land and its wildlife, the long summer days, the cold winters with glittering nights, the shaggy cows and horses, the frozen lake where some years we could skate for miles on ice so smooth and clear we could see the bottom many feet below, the sing-songy accents of Minnesota speech — all became a part of what I loved, of who I was, of who I am. Work that made sweat and hard muscles, even work that had to be done over and over again, like stacking the woodpile and cutting weeds along the fence line, had a sweetness to it. I loved the daily ritual of feeding a crowd of chickens who waited eagerly for you to dump their oats and mash into the feeders, of gathering eggs so fresh they were still warm in your cupped hand, of throwing slabs of hay over the fence to the horses who nickered to you as they watched. If you take care of animals day after day, see to their well-being, they will change you. You think you are beginning to love them, but in reality they are teaching you to love yourself and your place in the world."

Some of us around the table struggled more with our childhood than others, but we

all believe that in God's loving providence it all was to grow us to who we are today. 

Nothing in life is wasted. 

Margie concludes: "So it was here, in the midst of glory and brokenness, where I found a 

miracle--or at least pretty near to one: it was the thread of redemption that ran through 

my childhood, even through dark hours after midnight. If I had been fat with well-being

 and contentment I believe I would have missed the love of God that still tracks 

through the wilderness heading me toward Home. 

I am, I was, in the exact place I needed to be."

There were even recipes tucked here and there in the book.

Including, a delicious lemon pie.