The Book...

...is a bit overwhelming. Something that Alison said to me about a friend of hers who wrote a book has begun resonating with me. This woman looked in her computer and asked herself if she had a book, or just a bunch of different files that were sort of related.

I find that what I write is based on what I'm thinking about on a specific day. Certainly there are threads that combine the disparate thoughts, but weaving them together into a cohesive whole I think will be a very daunting task. I looked in my "Book" folder and I've got at least 45 different documents in there. Some are collections of quotes, but most are things that I've written--there's a lot of overlap, and honestly, I don't even know exactly all that is in there. And there have been so many things that have crossed my mind that I feel I need to write about that have slipped away into the ether too.

I've yet to write much on the fundamental premise of the book, the hinge upon which everything else must rest, that of the role of suffering in our lives. That's a bit daunting to write about, but I'll be leaning on C.S. Lewis, Elisabeth Elliott, Viktor Frankl and Pope John Paul II.

I think that's my next assignment, and as Alison has encouraged me, that's all we're supposed to do: keep completing the assignments.

I think once I've written on that subject, the bones of the book will be there, and that's pretty exciting.