Letter from Clare
Birthday presents that come out of the blue, and at the wrong time of year are always a nice surprise. My birthday is in May, but this year a present arrived in August, with apologies, but the hope that it might provide some pleasant holiday reading, and it did. I couldn’t put it down.
The book is the “The Secret Life of Bees” by Sue Monk Kidd; it tells the story of Lily, who has grown up believing she accidentally killed her mother when she was just 4 years old. Now, at 14, she yearns for forgiveness and a mother’s love. Living on a peach farm in S. Carolina with her father, her only friend is Rosaleen, a black servant. When racial tensions explode one summer afternoon, and Rosaleen is arrested and beaten, Lily is compelled to act. Fugitives from justice, the pair follow a trail left by the woman who died 10 years earlier. Finding sanctuary in the home of three bee-keeping sisters, Lily starts a journey as much about her understanding of the world, as about the mystery surrounding her mother.
The story is one about the healing of memory, about remembering in order to move forward and not to regress into a downward spiral of bitterness and guilt. November is a month for remembering, saints, loved ones, those lost in fighting, those lost in road accidents, on a Sunday now especially dedicated for that. Memories can be treasured, but they can also harm and hurt, beyond measure.
Our God is a God who invites us, “Come to me all those who are burdened and heavy laden and I will refresh you”. May we use November as an opportunity to lay our burdens down and find healing, new life, new hope.
Clare