Whirlybirds and Ordinary Times: Reflections on Faith and the Changing of Seasons

Abstract

The following is a work of creative nonfiction, a collection of personal essays organized around the liturgical Christian church seasons. The form is one that wanders, that claims no particularly special knowledge or authority--its grounding is in personal experience, and it seeks to make sense of things by asking questions and by telling stories. This appeals to me precisely because, as Flannery O'Connor has noted, if a writer of faith "hopes to reveal mysteries, he will have to do it by describing truthfully what he sees from where he is."