As we end week three of physical distancing, I am struck by how much more socializing I am doing. My sister and I who used to talk with each other maybe once every two weeks are now calling each other two or three times a week. I am calling my dad every other day since his retirement facility is now in lock down and we can not longer go to visit him. I talk to my daughters almost every day either by phone or text. We have set up group texts and chat groups for both sides of the family so we can check in easily and see how everyone is doing. I am learning how to do Zoom so I can still meet with the various groups I belong to. I am talking on FaceBook and email list serves to people I have rarely talked with in the past. Although we are apart physically this out pouring of alternative ways to still be with others is reassuring and gives me a sense of normalcy in a world that no longer seems normal. So since reassurance is on my mind I thought today I would recommend books that are reassuring.

Becoming Wise: An Inquiry into the Mystery and Art of Living, by Krista Tippett.  This book is based on the interviews Krista Tippett an award winning journalist and author conducted on her show entitled On Being. which is broadcast on NPR.  From Pico Iyer, Elizabeth Alexander, Jean Vanier, the Dalai Lama, Maria Popova and many more, Tippett Tippett adroitly reveals the wisdom that each of these men and women have to offer and  reveals what they have to teach us about life, love, faith and hope and by doing so she offers us a master class in the art of living.

Mary Oliver’s poems are one of the places I go to when I need some reassurance. Her way with words, and ability to get to the essence of things helps ground me when I need it most. A Thousand Mornings and Felicity are two of her collections I highly recommend.

Anne Lamott is another of my “go to” authors. I love her practical, brutal honesty and confessional writing style. She says all the things about herself that I can’t even begin to articulate about my own life and yet she finds joy and hope in the midst of the mess. Now that is reassuring! Read Help, Thanks, Wow: the Three Essential Prayers, Traveling Mercies or Plan B.

Now for some fiction to balance out the non-fiction.

In Plainsong and Eventide, two related novels by Kent Haruf, he reveals life in the small fictional town of Holt, Colorado. There is the family upended when their wife and mother cannot seem to get out of a bed, or a pregnant teen who is offered a lifeline by two old bachelor brothers who know nothing about teenagers or for that matter babies, but give her a place to stay with them or an elderly ill grandfather who realizes that he doesn’t have the energy or imagination necessary to raise his young grandson. With each revelation of the loneliness, fear and loss each of his characters experience, we also see acts of kindness and gentleness, and even love in the way people connect with each other in times of trouble and are family to one another even when they are not related at all. Clearly a lesson we are all seeing lived out now in our present circumstances.

In Close Your Eyes and Hold Hands by Chris Bohjalian, we follow seventeen year old Emily in the aftermath of a nuclear plant disaster in Vermont. In the midst of the evacuation that follows Emily overhears speculation that her father, who worked at the plant, had been drunk and caused the accident. Fearing public ridicule and shame, Emily flees and becomes just one more runaway teen in the city of Burlington. Her story might have ended there but she meets a young boy named Cameron and to protect him she has to face into reality and make the tough decisions she has avoided until now. This is a story about resilience, and the struggle to find normalcy when the world is no longer normal, and learning that sometimes when you suffer unimaginable loss all you can do is close your eyes, hold hands and face into it.

I hope these books have stirred your interest. Let me know what books you have found reassuring in the midst of all that we face right now!