The Great Divorce
By: C.S. Lewis
First Time I Read It: Summer, 2001
Number of Times I’ve Read It: Countless

Kenneth Tynan said of Lewis: “How thrilling he makes goodness seem -  how tangible and radiant.” That is the essence of Lewis, in all his works. I had read several other of this works prior to reading “The Great Divorce” in the summer of 2001. But the philosophical possibilities presented in this treatise struck a cord that still causes me to gluttonously devour every word each time I open my now tattered copy. Almost every page is saturated with the ink used to underline ideas articulated in a way only Lewis can.

To write each quote here would take forever, so I’ll limit it to my favorite:

“For every attempt to see the shape of eternity except through the lens of Time destroys your knowledge of Freedom. Witness the doctrine of Predestination, which shows (truly enough) that eternal reality is not waiting for a future in which to be real; but at the price of removing Freedom which is the deeper truth of the two. And wouldn’t Universalism do the same? Ye cannot know eternal reality by a definition. Time itself, and all acts and events that fill Time, are the definition, and it must be lived. The Lord said we were gods. How long could ye bear to look (without Time’s lens) on the greatness of your own soul and the eternal reality of her choice?”

The Westing Game
By: Ellen Raskin
I first read it in: 6th Grade
Number of times I’ve read it: 3

Last night I was at the local Barnes & Noble, and came across a table with a sign: “Summer Reading.” My heart lit up like a firefly as I gently carressed each paperback: Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing, The Trumpet of the Swan, Super Fudge, Charlottes Webb, and then . . . The Westing Game.

It’s a classic mystery with intrigue & adventure. The mysterious death of an eccentric millionaire brings together an unlikely assortment of heirs who must uncover the circumstances of his death before they can claim their inheritance. Anyone who needs a good book for the summer, why don’t you try it. The Westing Game, by Ellen Raskin.

I remember my first thought when they put Olivia on my tummy after I delivered her at the hospital. I thought: “Oh, she looks like herself.”

I was quite startled by this fact. Before this moment all babies looked alike it seemed to me. But Olivia didn’t look like the other babies. She looked like . . . well, she looked like herself.

About a month after we found out we were expecting, Wyatt and I had to give our “welcome to the ward” talks in sacrament meeting. I introduced us, and told the ward we were having a baby in October. Now mind you, this was in April. I think I was only like 10 or 11 weeks along. Wyatt then got up, and in made his additional comments to our introduction, stating that “apparently we’re having a girl” because I (Andrea) “just knew it.”

I had declared long before we had even considered starting our family that our first would be a girl. A declaration I stuck to throughout the pregnancy. Wyatt often teased me about this, asking how I knew. But it wasn’t a how. It just was. I don’t remember ever not knowing. I always felt a very strong  connection,  even as a young girl I remember knowing this. I just did.

And it was a girl. A baby girl Olivia, and she looked like herself.