On Hope, Life and My Ántonia

 My home town, each Spring, hosts an event called the “Weekend of Hope,” which is a retreat for cancer survivors and their families.   I was invited this year to do a reading at an ecumenical service at Stowe’s Community Church, and was deeply touched and a bit intimidated by the request to read something.  The charge was to do a reading about hope.

For my reading I chose two bits from My Ántonia by Willa Cather.  We named our daughter after the main character, not least because of the way Cather’s Ántonia tackles adversity throughout the story and finds a pathway to happiness.  I read small sections from the beginning of the story and the end. 

The process of thinking about hope and why this particular book has had such an impact on my own life was a good one.  The thoughts that came from the process seemed worth sharing.