Cutting For Stone

I'm back again, a few weeks after my last post about this book.  I was glad to finally finish.  There were times when I pushed through wanting to be done.  It did not move fast enough for me.  All in all I would still highly recommend it because when I look back the story as a whole was pretty incredible.  I found my favorite passages along the way and some pretty thought provoking as well.  You know I relish in finding those passages..here they are.

"Make something beautiful of your life". So incredibly simple and it's what we all want isn't it?

"Wasn't that the definition of home?  Not where you are from but where you are valued." Don't even need to explain why I liked this one!

Here's the part in the book where it was hard to get through.  I felt like the story lacked umpf so to speak.  I went almost 200 pages before I found another good one.

"All possibilities resided within me, and they required me to be here.  If I left, what would be left of me?"  This line was spoken by the main character Marion.  His whole identity is entangled with the hospital, mission and town he lives in.  Sometimes in life we step out of our comfort zone that is when great growth happens.  There is something to be said to have your roots so solid some place you become afraid to leave and challenge the life you know.  A life changing event happens to Marion which causes him to go on the run and end up in New York.  It is there that he eventually finds comfort in crafting his life call, becoming a doctor.

"Life is full of signs.  The trick is how to read them."... we just have to open our eyes to see them.  I don't think you have to be superstitious to believe in signs.  There are signs everywhere, street signs, signs of illness, signs of love and signs from God.  All we have to do is open our eyes, ears and heart.

And lastly, and it's a long one but so worth it...  "All sons should write down every word of what their fathers have to say to them.  I tried.  Why did it take an illnss for me to recognize the value of time with him.  It seems we humans never learn.  And so we relearn the lessons of every generation and want to write epistles.  We proselytize to our friends and shake them by the shoulders and tell them, "Sieze the day! What matters is this moment!" Most of us can't go back and make restitution.  We can't do a thing about our should haves and could haves."  Ug, makes me want to cry.  Isnt that always the way it is when we have a loved one that is dying or has died?  We want more time with them even if we have had a lifetime.  We realize how precious life is and remember not to take anything for granted.  But..as always the sun always rises and life goes on.

It is true, tomorrow is another day.  Please God, grant me many days and many tomorrows to look forward to!

"Cutting For Stone" By Abraham Verghese

"Cutting For Stone" is a book I have been eagerly waiting to read.  I started to hear about it last year..just mumblings really but I didn't know anything about the story.  In January I ran into a friend and she said, "It's the best book I have ever read!"  Here's the thing with me, if someone says that to me I automatically put it on my list to read even if the subject matter is something that does not interest me,  I have never heard about it or whatever.  To say a book is the "best" is like a moth to the flame for me.  Very basically, "Cutting For Stone" is the story of twin brothers born to a nun at a mission based hospital in Africa around 1940.  The hospital, the people who work and live there, and the country of Africa are all active characters as well.

I started this book about a week ago, before I left for Scottsdale hoping to do some real damage and get through as much of it as I could before I got home.  "Cutting For Stone" happens to be my April book club book so I am on a time crunch with it and it is long, 657 pages.  As of last night I am on page 235.  I will admit to struggling through a majority of the first few chapters hoping to God that one of the story lines takes off.  Well, I am happy to say that indeed..it had taken off.  Phew!   I book marked my first promising sentance on page 9 which reads, "Life too, is like that.  You live it in the forward but understand it backward".  Isn't that the truth!!  And then another that my friend Michele and I said to each other during our visit while I was in Scottsdale, "If you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans."  Amen to that!

I'll keep you posted!