(I originally wrote this review 2.5 years ago on my blog, but I only just discovered I'd never posted it here!)
I love my house. It's a small, started-in-the-seventeenth-century colonial, built onto over the years, but still bursting at the seams with my growing family. My mother-in-law brought my husband here, wrapped up in swaddling blankets, forty years ago, and there have been Houghs here ever since. My children dig around in the gardens on the back hill and find old, buried treasure (a.k.a. those little green army men) from Mark's childhood. They climb the same trees he climbed. The fireplace in the tiny living room has hosted innumerable philosophical conversations and teary-eyed heart-to-hearts. My four youngest children were born in the bedroom upstairs (the one with peeling mid-twentieth-century wallpaper and creaky 17th century floorboards).
But sometimes I need reminders of how wonderful a place this is. Because my kitchen tile has been gradually peeling up to reveal old fiberboard beneath for at least twenty years--in front of the sink, where women have stood for literally centuries, there's a giant bald patch that even an oversized rug can't quite hide anymore. (My mother-in-law lamented it before she even knew I existed.) Insulation, apparently, was a non-existent idea 300 years ago, so on cold days (like today), you can feel breezes pouring in through the outside walls of the house. Every inside wall needs to be repainted, and until a desperate dash this summer to keep up with insurance company demands, the outside walls were so pale and peeling that a photographer once stopped by randomly, requesting to take pictures of her kids by my "quaint" front door. The to-do list is a mile long, and our time-available list is...wait, what exactly is this concept of "available time," anyway??
Sometimes my heart glows with love for this home's history and character and coziness. Sometimes (usually in the winter when I can't feel my fingers anymore), I've been brought to tears by how much less it seems than the mythical standard. Last winter, on one of those latter days, Mark spoke right to my book-loving heart by telling me, "So who wants a Dursley house anyway? Let's be Weasleys. Everyone wants to go to the Weasleys' house." With my six joyful and, um, loud children ("more children than they can afford") piling on top of one another...with the little stained-glass window and dozen or so teacups in the shabby chic kitchen (being honest here, there isn't any "chic" about it), with the big pot of Monday soup and the daily bread and sibling squabbles and fierce love for one another...yeah, my home is basically the Burrow without the red hair, magical knitting needles, and garden gnomes.
Last week, when I excitedly cracked open my copy of Haley Stewart's new book, The Grace of Enough: Pursuing Less and Living More in a Throwaway Culture, I laughed when I noticed the title of Chapter 11: "Living the Gospel, Molly Weasley-Style." Then I almost cried when I actually read the chapter, because it spoke so directly to both my insecurities about my home and my hope for what I want it to be. Paragraphs like the following left me misty-eyed:
"The Weasleys are fictional characters from a fantasy series, yet they live out the truth of the Gospel to a surprising degree. While their merits include sacrificing their safety in order to fight evil and injustice, their virtues are even evident in the more mundane daily practices in their home. In addition to the fierce and devoted love Arthur and Molly Weasley offer each other and their children, their home is a haven for the marginalized. Forgotten people who have nowhere else to go find a place at their kitchen table. It's easy to imagine Molly Weasley adding a little water to the soup after welcoming an unexpected guest, trusting that there will always be enough. Their home is a beautiful example of what Christian hospitality should be."
This reminds me of a brilliant quote I discovered last year, from another insightful writer (Albert Einstein):
"If most of us are ashamed by shabby clothes and shoddy furniture, let us be more ashamed of shabby ideas and shoddy philosophies."
I came across these words just when I needed them most, and they reminded me that perfect kitchen floors and pristine wardrobes don't even begin to tip the scale against children who love God and each other and a family whose creativity and service makes a mess in the living room on a regular basis.
That theme, of embracing simplicity and eschewing what the world sees as success in order to live a full life in accordance with God's will for us, is the central point of Haley's book. It's a message so important in today's world...where big families are blamed for the declining natural resources while the average 3.1-person-Perfect American Household consumes and tosses and moves on. (I've written about this before.) That isn't to say that big families like mine don't have a ways to go--and that's why The Grace of Enough is so important for all of us. I can think of no better way to give you a hint of the riches in its pages than by quoting a few [awesome] chapter titles:
"No Turning Back: Trading Security for Togetherness"
"Nurturing a Wondrous Love for the Land"
"Rediscovering Beauty by Attending to the Transcendent"
"Holy Hospitality: Welcoming Christ in the Stranger"
"The Internet: Isolator or Community Builder?"
"Choosing Hope in a Dark World"
Haley Stewart's writing is open and friendly, even while challenging you to embrace the madness of a life deemed crazy by most of society. Like the Flannery O'Connor quote she references, "You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you odd." But who wouldn't want to be odd, if that means finding the joy of a purpose-filled life, a close family, a love for the earth, and a love affair with its Creator? With "odd" encompassing all of that, who'd want to be perfectly normal (thank you very much)?
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From the Publisher
Our culture presents the world as a cosmic supermarket. All of God’s creation—even our relationships to other people—is there for us to consume, expendable when it becomes difficult or requires sacrifice. We’re told that happiness is within our grasp if we can only buy enough, acquire enough, achieve enough. Yet in our pursuit of more we find only a larger and larger void needing to be filled. No matter how much we have, it’s never enough.
This disconnection we experience in modern life has brought about a thirst for something transcendent. In The Grace of Enough, Catholic blogger and podcaster Haley Stewart will inspire you to live simply, develop a sense of wonder, and center your life around home, family, and relationships. In these pages is a path separate from the modern consumerist lifestyle, and one that will deliver you to what you crave: enough.
In this book, Stewart shares the story of her family’s crazy experiment to leave suburban America to pursue a family-focused life on a sustainable agriculture farm. Instead of the expedient, they preferred the meaningful. Instead of the efficient, they chose the beautiful.
The Grace of Enough is simply an invitation to embrace this life of simple joy—to be fully alive to the truth of the Gospel, and to flourish in it.
Redirect Your Heart
"Each time we trade affluence for a family-centered life, or choose simplicity over excess, or practice holy hospitality, we align ourselves with the teachings of Christ and the Church," Stewart says. "We redirect our hearts toward embracing the Christian life in ways that better orient our hearts toward God."
In each chapter, Stewart encourages readers to reflect on throwaway culture in their own lives, with questions such as:
- How might your possessions be overwhelming you, distracting you, and eating up your valuable time?
- What simple prayers, devotions, or other family traditions can you cultivate to nurture your family or community life?
- What is one thing you can do to break the hold of throwaway culture in your part of the world?
"Spiritually inspiring."'
"We loved this fantastic story of faith, family, and discovering the joy of living on less. This book is a spiritually inspiring reminder to pause and reflect on how we can step away from the throwaway culture."
—Michele Faehnle and Emily Jaminet
Authors of Divine Mercy for Moms
"A lovely book."
"Our culture has proposed that the path to freedom entails working harder in order to have more. Our faith proposes a radically different idea. In this lovely book, Haley Stewart explores the idea of living simply—and it’s an idea that has the power to change the world."
—Tommy Tighe
Editor of The Catholic Hipster Handbook
"Wonderfully wise."
"Prophets wake us to our true state, call upon us to be better than we are, and demand that we think hard about the life we are living. And thus we shy away from prophets. Haley Stewart, however, won’t let us escape so easily. Hers is a genuinely prophetic voice, but one so full of fun and the sheer joy of living that she thoroughly charmed and convinced me. A wonderfully wise book for our confusing and misguided era."
—Paula Huston
Author of One Ordinary Sunday
"An antidote to throwaway culture."
"This book is an antidote to throwaway culture, a blueprint to living a fulfilling life. What St. Benedict did for the early monastics, Haley has done for modern suburbanites and families: provide a compelling rule, a practical life plan, one centered on community, simplicity, and charity."
—Brandon Vogt
Content director of Word on Fire Catholic Ministries and author of Why I Am Catholic
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Reviews with images
A great resource
What I like about Stewart's book is that she encourages us to start small and act intentionally. As she acknowledges, "God isn't calling everyone to live without a flushing toilet or to sell everything and move into a tiny apartment" (25).
We can do small things, like taking our kids to the park when they beg to go, even though it's hot and we’d rather stay home and watch TV in the air conditioning. I’m currently writing this review from the park, and not my air-conditioner home. And my kids are having a blast. :)
Top reviews from other countries
Amazon Customer
Fantastic book on intentional living
Reviewed in Canada on September 13, 2018