The Rabbit Room

Thank you, Helena! I bet your 1984 peat man is the same one that inspired Meet Me at the Museum, which I picked up because it is a novel told in letters. I also have some people who I love too much to abandon. Your encouragement is perfect.

I’ve had this happen when I’m writing too…pieces you didn’t know fit together (or even existed, at first), fitting together. I’ve also had similar experiences as you did in Ireland when I’ve traveled to Scotland. Looking forward to reading about the hill and what you came to know.

Thank you for sharing the building of your story. You’re right that when we’re in the mystery of the making and becoming- it seems like such a lost mess of pieces. It’s only after we’ve made the journey and have the distance to look back that we’ll see how it was a puzzle that fit together with some sort of magic… What a hopeful promise to hold onto when we’re in uncertainty and muddle-ment! This was beautiful and encouraging, Helena.

Hi, Brent!
I believe it’s out of print. The publisher is Abaris Books, Inc. Copyright 1978.

Aaron! Of course you’re right! I have Stephens’ name in the acknowledgements of the book, but I somehow got him mixed up with Mayhew in my notebooks! Thanks for the catch. I’ve updated the post. 🙂

And, to add to the fun, I’ve now spent ten minutes reading differing arguments on whether to use Stephens’ or Stephens’s.

This is beautiful!!! Thank you so much for sharing!!! Ian’s desperate longing to meet his father was the thing I connected with most in this film, so much so that it broke my heart when (spoilers) he didn’t get what he’d been longing for in the end. I love the parallels to the Gosple that you’ve drawn here. Definitely helps me better understand what the movie woke up in me, and gives me a new way to approach its message.

Just watched this movie with my little sister, and we loved it. I was also very moved by the surprise twist at the end. Your review adds a new layer of resonance to the story for me. Thanks for sharing!

Amazing.. Thanks for sharing!

All the applause.
“Sometimes, growing up makes us less honest about how much it hurts to be alive. We lower our expectations and make broad statements about the inevitability of suffering, as though that will mitigate the pain when it comes. ”
“I thought my son was the perfectionist. Maybe he is just more honest than I am.”
“My grief is overwhelming. It is older and deeper than my son’s. I’m just better at hiding it.”
Man. If that ain’t all the hard and important truth. And the end gave me chills. The whole thing is a perfect question, and I’m grateful you’ve asked it into the universe in such a compelling way.

Oh, me, too. Me, too.

Oh Helena, this is so beautiful and so true…. even without the scars (I can see) to keep getting up each day and beginning again. You captured this so well.

Give me a recording of you saying each one and I can get it in IPA (international phonetic alphabet) for you.
Although most of your descriptions get it done. 🙂

Hey, Adam! Thanks for your comment. I actually studied IPA in college, but that’s nearing 20 years ago. Most of what I learned in college has been forced out of my brain by more pressing matters. 🙂
There’s a short video on the RR Facebook page and on my personal page (Helena Sorensen Aman) in which I pronounce most of these names. Is that a clear enough recording?

I just wanted to double-check one more. “Ollamh” would be pronounced like “Ollav”, right?

Thanks, Helena. In the end, believers are in a comedy, we all get hitched in the end. So put them berries in the bucket! So looking forward to 1/2 bald hill’s release.

“The Romans, he said, insisted on “life marked out in squares.” They built straight roads and sent square units of soldiers, unfeeling phalanxes, to conquer the world, to claim yet more land and draw yet more squares. Their minds were full of lines and corners.”

Ah! The Romans were Borg!

i CANNOT wait for this book to come out. i’m going to fling it at so many people.

I grew up in that looming shadow of the apocalypse too. As a kid, if my mom and my sister didn’t get home on time, I’d have to push down panic that they’d been whisked away, leaving me behind to eat my way through a seven-layer burrito of suffering and wrath. I don’t think I FULLY got out of that story and into a better one until I discovered the Rabbit Room. Deep thanks to you and everyone here who keep telling that better story.
That said, waiting for this book to release is becoming a tribulation of its own. If the world ends before I get to read it, I’m going to have words with somebody.

Helena, your post sent me to my copy of Word in the Wilderness to soak in the words of this poem. The lines and thoughts about maps have been echoing these days, as well as the word ‘open’ in a way that says ‘surrender.’ I want to hold my map close, with its worn out folds and creases as if I could chart my way through challenges and failures. God is constantly reminding me how gracious His care is. Never mind my own sin (which is ever before me) but the challenges through uncharted territory of a virus outbreak in my Seattleland backyard have been pushing me to lean on God’s care and love, growing my trust moment by moment.
Thinking of you all in the Nashville area….your words are a gracious gift in these tentative times.