Let me just tell you some really good news - this could be your lucky week - really, it could be so great if you were to: 1) read my official, *starred*, succinctly-written, un-biased review of Bittersweet by Shauna Niequist, to be posted on Wednesday, August 18 AND if, after reading the review, you were to, say; 2) LEAVE A COMMENT on my blog (I will, of course, post a must-answer-question); 3) IF, after leaving a comment, your name were to be selected by some random method (tbd), you might just be the lucky recipient of: a) A signed (by Shauna, not me) copy of Bittersweet; and b) A box of Jessica Foster Confections, which are handmade in Santa Barbara, CA...mmm, divineness in a box!
Here's an excerpt from Bittersweet - I'll post another excerpt tomorrow (Tuesday) then come back Wednesday to leave a comment and we'll just see who wins this scrumptious prize! (P.S., giveway will run from Aug 18 - Aug 23, winner announced on Aug 24!)
From the chapter titled Ravenous "...I'd like to host a dinner party every other day. I think life is delicious, and I want to gobble it up in big bites, eating, drinking, reading, talking, traveling - everything. I want everything. I'm hungry for everything, all the time. Bookstores make me ravenous, as do city streets and airports and glossy fashion magazines. So much to see, taste, touch, try, do. I can feel myself come to life, eyes open, taking everything in, fingers running over textures, ears pricked for sounds. I feel like life is so genuinely interesting, that there's so much to be tasted and tried and discovered.
I love it when a day's activities stack up on top of each other perfectly, from breakfast to work to lunch to grocery shopping to coffee, all the way through till I fall into bed. I love days when you're always leaving something early to arrive just a touch late at the next place, like pearls on a string or Tarzan swinging on vines, feet never touching the ground.
Or really, I love the idea of that way of living, so I sign myself up for it every change I get. And then I realize in the moment that it isn't what I wanted at all. After a while, I'm frantic and tired and not really listening when people are talking. I'm frazzled and frustrated that Henry doesn't want to get in the car again, but of course he doesn't. Why would he want to get dragged around on the crazy whirlwind that I think will keep me happy? I've been around this block a thousand times. I'm ravenous, and life looks to me so sparkly and beautiful, waiting to be devoured like a perfect apple. So I say yes, yes to everything, to that meal and that event and that trip and that person. It's so delicious, and I don't want to miss out on even one moment of it. And that's the point; I miss all sort of sacred and significant moments, because of my frantic insistence that I can do it all, and that I don't have to miss anything..."
