Sweet Anticipation

I discovered a new Barbara Kingsolver novel last week and hied myself to Amazon.com to order it. It arrived on Friday. Now I am forcing myself into a delicious anticipation of reading it. I couldn't help dipping two toes into it the day it came, but I'm saving the rest for later in the week.

I'm having arthroscopic surgery on Wednesday to take care of a torn meniscus in my knee. It's been months of limping around in intermittently excruciating pain, and at last I entertain the hope of being able to spend more than 30 minutes standing on my feet or walking through the Corvallis farmers' market or exploring a forest pathway or hunting agates on the Oregon coast.

The novel is my reward—the all-day sucker I am saving for my recovery time. It will be short, but I will be able to recline, buried in a book for at least two days while the others in my life flurry around me and maybe even bring me things when I ask. I promise not to take advantage, but the prospect of legitimate down-time is a joyful one, even if it involves a modicum of pain.

The title, you ask? The Lacuna, i.e. "the void." We've all been there, have we not? That place of grey fog and nothingness or expansive space and everythingness that precedes or ends a period of personal and spiritual growth.

At the end, maybe I'll come back here and offer a review. Barbara Kingsolver—a feast of evocative word-pictures and extraordinary events. It promises to be a memorable recovery!