When I started this blog ten years ago, I did not know where I was going with it or when it would finish, but after turning seventy this year, October 13, I felt it was time to leave it behind. I do not think we can carry everything with us on our life journey, so we have to use wisdom to know when to let go of something. Then there are the thresholds you are longing to step over. So letting go of this blog, which I have not really been keeping updated anyway, will let me step over a threshold. I will be keeping a record of the books I read but in a different more manual way. And I have made copies of these posts......
In my previous post, I left out a series of books that I had read and really gained helpful insight. They were by M. Scott Peck, M.D. The Road Less Traveled, The Road Less Traveled and Beyond, People of the Lie, The Different Drum, Further Along the Road Less Traveled. Quote from book cover explains: "Recognizing that, as in the famous opening line of his book, "Life is difficult," and that the journey to spiritual growth is a long one, Dr. Peck never bullies his readers but rather guides them gently through the hard and often painful process of change toward a higher level of self-understanding." I will be rereading these books again, maybe this winter.
Recently, I found a new to me publishing company and I love the books they offer. It is Cluny Media . Their publishing philosophy is simple: A book, from cover to cover, should be an artifact, a work of art. Because our business is primarily to take the old and make it new, this philosophy demands a particular, careful process. Unlike the facsimile “republications” of other, similarly motivated publishers, Cluny editions are restorations. The restorative spirit especially animates the production and design elements of the publishing process. Most of the authors are new to me, such as Ignazio Silone with Fontamara, Bread and Wine, and The Seed Beneath the Snow. All three of these books kept me moving with the story. And Alice Curtayne with Borne on the Wind. I intend to purchase and read more from Cluny Media. www.clunymedia.com
Into the Silent Land, A Guide to the Christian Practice of Contemplation by Martin Laird was very helpful and I'll be getting a refresher from it next year.
Two novels I enjoyed this autumn were Walking to Gatlinburg by Howard Frank Mosher and Yesterday in the Hills by Floyd C. Watkins/Charles Hubert Watkins. I was surprised by how much I enjoyed reading them, I just finished The Lifted Veil by George Eliot which had been on my book shelves unread for way to long,
This last book takes me back to my roots, growing up on a farm in Barnardsville, NC: Saving Seeds, Preserving Taste, heirloom seed savers in Appalachia, by Bill Best. He retired from Berea College in 2002 after forty years as a professor, coach and administrator. He is director of the Sustainable Mountain Agriculture Center located near Berea, Kentucky, which makes heirloom seeds available to a wide regional audience and around the world. "Perhaps only once in a lifetime we read a book that is a true treasure of American lore, one that no other person could write. Bill Best should be considered a National Treasure Keeper, for his beans, tomatoes, and corn, as well as his stories, are irreplaceable and therefore of immeasurable value." Gary Paul Nabhan, author. Bill Best grew up in the Upper Crabtree community in Haywood County, North Carolina and the book is dedicated to his mother, Margaret Sanford Best, who has a greasy bean named after her (Margaret Best Greasy). Reading this book, I learned how a new greasy bean happens and is named and the havoc taking place in the seed world. I have always loved gardening and preserving and saving seeds and have had garden spots in all the places we have lived. Greasy beans have been a favorite of mine since childhood; this year we bought two bushels of greasy beans named "Tommy Boyd" from a grower in western NC on Jonathan's Creek. I fixed leather britches and saved a lot of seed for my backyard garden boxes. I have grown greasy beans for several years from seeds purchased from Sow True Seeds in Asheville, NC. www.sowtrueseed.com This company is in their second decade as an independent seed company committed to a seed system that supports food security and agriculture diversity through heirloom preservation and open-pollinated varieties. Needless to say, I talked about greasy beans to everyone while I was reading this book and stringing and breaking two bushels of "Tommy Boyd" greasy beans. We had some of these greasy beans at our Thanksgiving Celebration meal. Come spring, I will be planting the "Tommy Boyd" greasy bean seeds.
