Little Ways

We managed to squeeze 12 of us around our table on a crisp fall morning to feast on brunch and to share our reaction to Rod Dreher’s The Little Way of Ruthie Leming: A Southern Girl, a Small Town and the Secret of a Good Life. 

Books seemed a fitting centerpiece, and with the addition of two more plates found in a resale shop plus two off the wall, we were able to be graced with blue and white. We scattered quotes from the book around the table.

I think the orange ribbons added the most, as well as the

 delicious food that every one brought. My. we can put on a feast!

The book? The author, a writer/journalist, writes about his sister's life and death at the young age of 42, less than two years ago. So its very fresh, and you could say the story isn't over yet, as the author continues to experience the ripple effects of losing his sister and his new life in his small hometown.

The book was far more than a chronicle about a life and a death. It is a story about a life lived for others; and about family, relationships, community, going home, sacrifice, religion, trust, small town living . . . 

"I once asked Paw why, given that he was feeling sick that day, he was planning to go to the funeral of an old woman he didn't know well. 

"Respect," he said to me, slightly annoyed that he had to explain the obvious. "That family has lived around here for a long time."
 It's hard to know these things, much less find the wherewithal to behave this way, if you haven't lived in a place for years and come to make its stories part of yourself. 

Absence has consequences.... " (quote from book)

“The same communal bonds that appeared to me as chains all those years ago 

had become my Louisiana family’s lifelines. What I once saw through 

the melodramatic eyes of a teenager as prison bars were in fact the pillars

 that held my family up when it had no strength left to stand.”

(quote from book)

I think we would all recommend the book. 

We had 100% attendance that morning, including our friend 

from Germany on a stack of books at one end of the table!

Linking to Little Red House for Monday Mosaics.