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4.06 AVERAGE
4.06 AVERAGE
Why I picked it: Years ago I heard an interview with Kate Braestrup on Krista Tippet's podcast On Being. She was so lovely and sensible and I wanted to hear more from her.
I really enjoyed this and it was touching to hear Kate Braestrup herself narrate it.
She has lovely quiet insight that really takes on the complexity of tragedy and loss but doesn't try to fix things with sweeping truths or meaningless platitudes.
If you love being in nature, you'll find this book is beautiful as Kate takes the time to write about the Maine outdoors with tenderness and awe. As a minister, she talks about God but she writes so lovingly, openly, and simply that those sensibilities are woven in beautifully as part of her life and story.
I really enjoyed this and it was touching to hear Kate Braestrup herself narrate it.
She has lovely quiet insight that really takes on the complexity of tragedy and loss but doesn't try to fix things with sweeping truths or meaningless platitudes.
If you love being in nature, you'll find this book is beautiful as Kate takes the time to write about the Maine outdoors with tenderness and awe. As a minister, she talks about God but she writes so lovingly, openly, and simply that those sensibilities are woven in beautifully as part of her life and story.
Here If You Need Me: a memoir by Kate Braestrup
Kate Braestrup, a widowed mother of four decides to fulfill her husband’s (a state Maine trooper) 2nd career of becoming a Unitarian Univeralist law enforcement chaplain. In Kate’s case she becomes a chaplain for the Maine fish and game wardens. The book is filled with snippets of her life with her four children along with her tales of being called in on search and rescue missions. The audio is fabulous!!!!!!!!!
Kate Braestrup, a widowed mother of four decides to fulfill her husband’s (a state Maine trooper) 2nd career of becoming a Unitarian Univeralist law enforcement chaplain. In Kate’s case she becomes a chaplain for the Maine fish and game wardens. The book is filled with snippets of her life with her four children along with her tales of being called in on search and rescue missions. The audio is fabulous!!!!!!!!!
Gorgeous
Read a short story by the author in The Moth podcast collection and had to search out more. Honest, sad, beautiful, hopeful. Mildly religious but not unpalatable even for a skeptical reader.
Read a short story by the author in The Moth podcast collection and had to search out more. Honest, sad, beautiful, hopeful. Mildly religious but not unpalatable even for a skeptical reader.
Read this book before a summer of chaplaincy. A very helpful look at helping others cope with death.
This is classified as a memoir, and I guess it technically is, but I found it to be more a meditation on faith, love, community, and death. As the chaplain for Maine's game wardens, Braestrup sees plenty of all four as she sits with families waiting to hear of their loved one's fate, assists people through the grieving process, and counsels wardens through days both dull and catastrophic. In particular, her concept of eternity--that there may be no heaven or hell other than how we create our memory on earth--is something that will stick with me. This is beautifully written, with a lot of good, gentle, grounded wisdom in it.
Braestrup is a UU minister who works as the chaplain of the Maine Warden Service. She takes us to scenes of searches & recoveries of bodies, and through her own journey to get there. She is widowed when her husband, who was planning to become a law enforcement chaplain, dies in a car accident, and she decides to go to seminary to achieve his dream. Some tear-jerking moments, some Deep Thoughts, some chuckles, some things that'll stick with you, some things that are just a pleasant read, and some great vocabulary; I ended up making a list of unknown words along the way.
I like Kate and would have to give this book 3.5 stars if I could. Was it a "can't put it down book" No, but interesting all the same and thought provoking.
What an amazing woman. I wish I knew Ms. Braestrup in person. Failing that, I wish I lived closer to a Unitarian church. I like a system of morality and "religion" that does not conflict my liberal atheist leanings...