“I see it clear, June coming in bright on the breeze through open window: there is no real reality, no full life, outside of the relationship with Love, because God Himself wraps Himself eternally in relationship: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit existing in relationship, an encircling dance of communion sweetest. God is love–everywhere! every thing!– and He can only be love because He exists in triune relationship. . . . I too am lavished with the love the Father has for the Son. In union, that love is mine–ours! ”  Ann Voskamp

One Thousand Gifts was given to me as a gift by a dear friend. I wasn’t too far into it when I realized I would need to adjust to her use of language. The purpose of the book delivers and delivers. The reader is constantly faced with the spiritual during the stressful, the things of God when life and loss doesn’t seem right or fair. We are on the journey with Ann. We feel her pain. We know her frustrations. She lets us see into confusing, contradictory thoughts that make up the stuff of real life. I like it. And, I appreciate where the journey takes her. Looking to the good, finding the tiniest of celebrations, seizing the forms of beauty that make up our days, is what Ann challenges us to “pay attention” to as she chronicles crawling out of the darkness into the light by living in Eucharisteo, in constant communion with God. The pain has found its comfort, and that comfort is in the Creator and Sustainer.  I appreciate the encouragement that this sweet book offers to all who have been hurt by heart-breaking loss and buried by unspoken pain. It is time to live fully right where you are. One Thousand Gifts: A Dare to Live Fully Right Where You Are