Reading and Writing

Today I hid in my basement, pretending to get organized. It was cool and restful and I unpacked a box or two. You know the type- boxes you never should have moved, the ones that have been sitting in a corner for two years. We needed the space so I promised to clear out the boxes. But I kept going back to a book I was reading. At first I needed to know if Sabine and Puck would be OK. It was an adventure story, a mystery. Then the rest of Kathi Appelt's new book, The Underneath, grabbed me and wouldn't let go. As I said, it was cool and restful in my basement, a perfect place to read. I finished it tonight and can't get it out of my head.

I'm really more of a dog person, if we have to take sides. But I know exactly what Appelt means when she writes Purring is not so different from praying. To a tree, a cat's purr is one of the purest of all prayers, for in it lies a whole mixture of gratitude and longing, the twin ingredients of every prayer.