About this item
The Gift of an Ordinary Day is an intimate memoir of a family in transition-boys becoming teenagers, careers ending and new ones opening up, an attempt to find a deeper sense of place, and a slower pace, in a small New England town. It is a story of mid-life longings and discoveries, of lessons learned in the search for home and a new sense of purpose, and the bittersweet intensity of life with teenagers--holding on, letting go. Poised on the threshold between family life as she's always known it and her older son's departure for college, Kenison is surprised to find that the times she treasures most are the ordinary, unremarkable moments of everyday life, the very moments that she once took for granted, or rushed right through without noticing at all.
About the Author
KATRINA KENISON's work celebrates the simple gifts of everyday life, the beauty in the ordinary, the grace of the present moment. Her first book "Mitten Strings for God: Reflections for Mothers in a Hurry" has become a classic for parents of young children. In "The Gift of an Ordinary Day: A Mother's Memoir" Katrina shares the bittersweet challenges of life with adolescents. Her memoir "Magical Journey: An Apprenticeship in Contentment" resonates with any woman who has ever found herself standing in the middle of her own life asking, "What now? "
The intimate essays in her most recent book, "Moments of Seeing: Reflections from an Ordinary Life," candidly and courageously explore themes of loss, change, and transformation familiar to women everywhere. "Wake up," she gently reminds her readers. "Be grateful. Keep an eye out for wonder."
A former literary editor at Houghton Mifflin Company, Katrina was the series editor for "The Best American Short Stories" for 16 years. She co-edited, with John Updike, "The Best American Short Stories of the Century." With her yoga teacher, Rolf Gates, she wrote "Meditations from the Mat: Reflections on the Path of Yoga."
The mother of two grown sons, Katrina is a passionate reader whose idea of heaven is a hammock under a tree and a hardcover book in her hand. She lives in the New Hampshire countryside with her husband. Her YouTube video of a reading from The Gift of an Ordinary Day, one of the most-watched book trailers of all time, has been viewed by nearly 2 million people: http://www.youtube.com/watch? v=olSyCLJU3O0
