Words from the Heart: Yes, Please!
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I have always loved Maggie Rowe’s words. When we both had speaking ministries in New England, I tried to attend any presentations she was giving. When she wrote a blog as a local ministry leader, I eagerly awaited her posts. When she and I had the privilege of being members of a small speakers’ group, I got to know her better. And I learned what made her words so true, so encouraging, and so powerful. They were straight from the heart. A very big, very sensitive, endlessly loving heart.
What joy, then, to find in my mail something I had long wished for: A book by Maggie—This Life We Share: 52 Reflections on Journeying Well with God and Others. This is a book for our times. As I write these words, we are still mired in a seemingly endless fog of social isolation and quarantine which looks entirely different depending on your situation. My world is full of moms who are absolutely worn to a thread by the daily grind of unanticipated homeschooling, “working from home,” and houses filled with children and dogs and harried husbands and, well, just too much togetherness.
How long O Lord, how long?
I also have friends who live alone. And while that may sound great to many of you moms who think “alone” sounds like heaven just now, it can be very very lonely to actually be alone 24/7 day after day after day.
So, is This Life We Share a book for our times? Yes! Why?
It’s a guilt-free read, what some might call a “snatch book.” With 52 short readings, you can pick it up any time, peruse the Table of Contents, and pick the reading(s) that looks best for your day. And because nothing is dated, you never have to feel behind when you go days between readings. Perfect for moms, yes? Guess what each of “my girls” (daughter and daughters-in-law) are getting for Mother’s Day?!
It’s real. Maggie is a vulnerable, transparent, wonderfully honest writer. You will be relieved (“I’m not the only one”), challenged, and encouraged, because Maggie shares both failures and successes, helping us embrace and learn from our own.
It’s for all of us women. Married, single, feeling single, moms, grandmoms, spiritual moms. We’re all in this together, girls, and that’s how Maggie rolls.
It makes you feel hugged. And what could we need more these days? Because Maggie writes so deeply from her heart, it feels as if we readers have the chance to sit and have a little chat with her in her home at Peace Ridge. And then, as she says, she presses courage in us for the journey ahead, “along with a cold drink and a sack lunch.”
I say “yes, please!” You might want to as well.
Click here to read an excerpt from the chapter “Cradles and the Cross.”