on the bedside table

Here are the books in the stack by my pillow that will be getting me through many hours during this beautiful, brisk Fall (and possibly into Winter):

Till We Have Faces - C.S. Lewis
Swept Up by the Spirit - by Gary Garner
Everybody Needs to Forgive Somebody - Allen Hunt
Confessions - St. Augustine


Author Allen Hunt is pretty 'spesh' in my life.  He is a deep thinker who loves the Truth.  Even though he is older and balder than I am, my maternal instincts sort of kick in when I am around him because of the time he told me that if it weren't for (insert lame-in-hindsight reason here) he would be Catholic.  With the zeal of St. Monica I began praying.  I rejoiced mightily when he came into the Fullness of Christ.
Allen happens to be married to someone I really love.  Someone who I cherish spending time with because she has the gifts of wisdom and counsel.  I first noticed it the day  her words gave my grieving heart wings.  When I am lucky enough to be able to steal a snippet of time out of her busy life, it never fails that as a result, there are countless "God moments."
Also, her uncle was one of my favorite people on the planet.

Gary Garner, whose book Swept Up by the Spirit was recently published, is a friend of mine. An amazing Christian. When you meet him, he radiates Christ's love. The patina of his soul is simply beautiful. This is his first book.
He is also a woodcarver and, aside from the walls of the church in which I met this lovely man, another of my favorite 'holy places to be' is inside his workshop.  His skillful hands not only create crucifixes and crosses, but have made Sanctuary furnishings (altars, pulpits, fonts, etc). 
I may have shown these to you before, but I went to his place once and remembered my camera: