Book Day
It's where we highlight books that InScribe members have read and recommend—based on our blog themes of Faith and Writing. This month's selection is written by one of our own InScribe members, Linda Hoye.
TITLE: Living Liminal: A Slice of Pandemic Life
AUTHOR: Linda Hoye
PUBLISHER: Benson Books, Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, 2023
"Pandemic day n. Who knows anymore? Day by day. Hour by hour. Focus on the better things. The timeless and unchangeable things. Let the rest fall away. Now is the time to grasp the truth that we as human beings are not as in control of things as we would like to believe. It is the time to lament and to trust and to turn our attention toward home and toward God. Maybe the one true thing we can do today is to turn things over."
Each of us experienced the Coronavirus pandemic that began in March 2020 differently. In Living Liminal, Linda Hoye shares her thoughts written during the days of 2020 and 2021, bits of blog and social media posts, poetry, and journal entries, along with provincial health orders and statements. The book is a chronicle of one woman's story during the uncertainty and turbulence of pandemic times, compounded by the devastating forest fires and floods in British Columbia in 2020 and 2021.
Hoye's experience was home-centered, as it was for many in the world. She describes her habit of rising early to read, write, and drink tea while cuddled with a blanket and her dog. As a person who enjoyed solitude, the experience of enforced time at home with her husband and occasionally a granddaughter, had a different, unsettling feeling about it. Hoye shares her struggles with sliding into depression, with being overwhelmed by circumstances, and most of all, about her trust in God to bring her through this time. She writes of changing seasons, of details of time-stopping encounters with nature, and of the comfort of a lighted candle in the darkness of winter. Comfort is found in short conversations with friends, in books, and hot cups of coffee.
I very much enjoyed reading Hoye's perspective on the pandemic. My own experience was much different. As a teacher, life became busier. My husband, a health-care executive, worked constantly. I found myself envying those who had time to bake sourdough, dabble in watercolour painting, and who wrestled to fill their days. Living Liminal gives me another look at how others navigated these days, weeks, and months, and has given me empathy for the different struggles everyone endured.
Hoye ponders "I wonder if, as life hints at returning to something more "normal", we will forget lessons learned in the quiet? Will we take deep pockets of inactivity with us into whatever comes next? Have we come to appreciate the wisdom of not always doing? Are we comfortable with less? Or frantic for more?" We could ask ourselves these questions today as new challenges face the world. What kind of life do we want to live?
Find more of Linda's writing at her Substack account.
Thank you, Lorrie.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading Linda's memoir and learning of her experiences through the pandemic. My own experience was similar to Linda's, in that our life got very quiet and our circle very small. Introvert me settled into this time where I had time to pursue my own little projects without pressure or expectation from the outside world. While worrying for other people who had such stressful times trying to maneuver having children at home and losing jobs and worrying about elderly loved ones they couldn't visit in hospitals.
ReplyDeleteThanks so much, Lorrie, for taking the time to share this insightful review of Linda's memoir.
I asked these same questions... "Have we come to appreciate the wisdom of not always doing?" or will we forget the lessons learned during that time? Sounds like an interesting book of reflection... I shall have to look it up.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Lorrie and thanks, Linda. This is a book I would like to read as, like Lorrie, our experience of Covid was quite different. On my list.
ReplyDelete