Facing the Dawn by Cynthia Ruchti

 

Finding books that are about real life and not some dreamy paradise that hardly seems real to life can be a challenge. There is also that desire to have the imaginary world end well because we all know that life isn't imaginary and doesn't always have neat, tidy endings. So I like both kinds of books. Facing the Dawn by Cynthia Ruchti combines both. It's written in a snarky way that can almost feel contrived, like can any one person really talk that way that much, and yet, it helps to override the deep and almost dark material that the book is made up of. 

Mara has lived up to her name: bitter. Her husband, Liam, has taken off for Africa for four years, leaving her to raise two teenagers and a pre-teen and it has not gone well. In the first chapter of the book, we learn that her son has visits with a probation officer and the she just doesn't seem to be handling life real well. It only goes downhill from there. 

When the unthinkable happens, Mara is unsure how she is going to get up in the morning and then her forever friend Ashley shows up. Ashley knows a little of the road Mara is walking and she is determined not to let Mara wallow. While this book is full of the journey of grief, it is also full of friendship and love, God's love, that Mara is finally ready to grab a hold of. Mara has to learn that life is livable again, that she can get up, but that she must cling to God and His Word to help her through every day. 

I loved watching Ashley grab ahold and refuse to let Mara stay in bed all day. I want to be a forever friend, but I am afraid I would be quick to just let people go if they didn't seem to want me around. But instead, Ashley dug in and was willing to stick it out despite Mara's unwillingness at times.

Facing the Dawn seems to be the fiction version of the nonfiction book I'm reading about friendship. It put into action some of the concepts I read about. 

There was a paragraph or two that I want to quote here that stuck out to me, not for the friendship it displayed, but for the joy in the everyday it conveyed. That joy, that observance of the little things is something I want to have be a part of my life.

"'I think we're being treated to wonder all the time. We're not always observant of it, though. I want to live noticing the speckles in the orchid's throat, the cardinal in the branches of the birch tree in my backyard at home or in a watercolor, the hint of lime in the mango sorbet.'"

"'And receive it all as an expression of God's artistry and his love for us,' Ashlee said, almost breathless."

I really enjoyed the book. I enjoyed seeing the change in Mara from beginning to end. While it was fiction, I think there are things to be learned from seeing her lean into life instead of backing away. There have been periods of my life where I have backed away and life is never as full or beautiful then as it is when you lean in and embrace even the hard stuff.

I received this book from Revell and was not required to write a positive review.  All opinions expressed are my own.