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A review by christinajcraig
Ordinary Light: A Memoir by Tracy K. Smith
4.0
Tracy K. Smith's memoir resonated with me in a lot of ways. She describes her relationship with her mother, the trouble she faces with her religion, and the joy she receives from the written word.
"At seventeen, I hadn't seen anything. I only knew how much distance I wanted to cross but nothing of what it would look or feel like or what it would leave me with.
"I didn't yet know what was important to me or what would remain important down the line, after the thrill of experiencing these first few freedoms, and the weight of living with what they brought, had passed. I was right when I told myself that the God I'd learned to believe in so long ago was still there, bigger and more real than I had imagined, and that He was long - suffering, abiding, that whatever He was would blaze bright and undeniably near when the thing that led me to Him was not obligation in fear.
"It was neither the end of one chapter nor the beginning of anther but rather a deep, vacant, weight less now that would last as long as it lasted and lead to wherever it led."
"At seventeen, I hadn't seen anything. I only knew how much distance I wanted to cross but nothing of what it would look or feel like or what it would leave me with.
"I didn't yet know what was important to me or what would remain important down the line, after the thrill of experiencing these first few freedoms, and the weight of living with what they brought, had passed. I was right when I told myself that the God I'd learned to believe in so long ago was still there, bigger and more real than I had imagined, and that He was long - suffering, abiding, that whatever He was would blaze bright and undeniably near when the thing that led me to Him was not obligation in fear.
"It was neither the end of one chapter nor the beginning of anther but rather a deep, vacant, weight less now that would last as long as it lasted and lead to wherever it led."