Jane Christmas

I’ve had this book on my TBR stack for a long time now- I was interested in a story about a woman with some disabilities travelling through Europe as I am a traveller with some disabilities...

Well.
I also have some (well one, really) ungrateful snarky child. As, apparently, does the mother in this story.

The author spends the book whining about what a pain it is taking her mother around Italy, how frustrating every thing her mother says and does is, how she wishes over and over again she was alone. She wants to tell her mother things like, “if you’d taken care of yourself when you were younger you wouldn’t be this sick now.” !!!

She complains about almost everything in Italy, whines about the accommodation, the car, the fact that no one speaks English- and then about the blandness of the more modern hotels. The trip is in the off season, and she is surprised to find things are closed. She complains about how shops close during the week, blah blah blah. She wants to sit down with her mother and air her grievances. She doesn’t. Instead she hollers about how she hates her mother’s walker and throws it in places.

Writing style is excellent, but I didn’t find her take funny and in fact started to dislike her heartily.

Listen, if you are 40 and you are still blaming your parents for how you turned out, you need to grow up. To take your disabled mother on a trip for which you have prepared NOTHING and then rant about how life isn’t all lollipops is childish in the extreme.
… (mer)

Non-fiction account of the author’s spiritual journey to determine whether she would become a nun. I have always been curious about why a person is drawn to become a nun, how they live, and what their daily routine is like. This book answers those questions and does so with a large dose of self-deprecating humor. It also involves making peace with a past trauma in her life and explores the role of spirituality in the modern world. It takes the reader behind the scenes into four monastic communities, two Anglican and two Roman Catholic in three locations: one in Toronto, Canada, two in the Isle of Wight, and one in North Yorkshire, England.

Jane Christmas is a Canadian whose mother is Roman Catholic, and father was Anglican. She has been a journalist and communications manager in the business and non-profit sectors. She has a different background than I was expecting when reading about nuns, as she has been twice married and is a mother with grown children. I had always thought of nuns as part of the Catholic religion and was unaware that they are also part of the Anglican religion. Since her early years, she had envisioned herself becoming a nun, but had never pursued it. After a marriage proposal from her then-boyfriend, she needed to decide which path to take.

I liked that this book comes right out and says it is about the religious life. It does not masquerade as something other than what it is. Her views can be considered progressive, and she takes the church to task on the treatment of women and the gay community. However, to me it reads more like a memoir, a documentation of her journey in faith toward personal insight, than social commentary. I liked that she shows the power of silence, patience, listening, and contemplation in our increasingly distracted, noise-filled society, and how it can help in gaining internal perspective. Recommended to those interested in spiritual journeys or understanding how a modern convent operates.… (mer)

Jane who has been married twice before and has grown children is in a long-distance relationship w/ Colin. He lives in England, she in Canada.

When Colin finally asks Jane to marry him, she happily accepts on one condition, that he give her 18 months to spend in a convent in oder to answer her calling to become a nun.

During her 18 months, Jane stays in several different religious houses in both Canada and England, including two on the Isle of Wight and settling finally in North Yorkshire.

Jane learn not only about herself, but the quirks & proclivities of her co-inhabitants and sadly the many hypocrisies of both the Catholic & Anglican hierarchies.

There is quite a bit of history in this book, which gave me pause to search the internet in order to find out more.

Definitely an interesting read highlighting that spirituality is a highly personal practice and not all who take holy vows are saintly.… (mer)