Grace Period: My Ordination to the Ordinary

by Melinda Worth Popham

Overview

Author Melinda Worth Popham left home for Yale Divinity School at age fifty-six after a barrage of painful life events brought her to her knees and led to the discovery that pain is the Miracle Gro of spiritual growth.

Grace Period recounts the spiritual journey launched by the break-up of her marriage and her teenage daughters descent into an intractable depression that led to an Ivy League seminary, not in pursuit of ordination to ministry but quite simply to her plain old ordinary sacred self. Wise, honest, and unexpectedly humorous, Grace Period is not only about Pophams study of God but about Gods education of her.

In this impeccably written memoir, Popham ... proves herself a highbrow, refined spiritual sister to Anne Lamott.

Publishers Weekly (starred review)

Anyone who has suffered, or lives with a modicum of spiritual curiosity, will want to press this book into the hands of a friend.

BlueInk Review (starred review)

A stunning spiritual autobiography and a work of profound discernment.

Foreword Clarion Review (5-star review)

Next Generation Indie Book Awards finalist

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781532017896
Publisher:	iUniverse, Incorporated
Publication date:	03/09/2017
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	264
File size:	438 KB

About the Author

Melinda Worth Popham earned a BA from the University of Chicago and MAs from Yale Divinity School and Stanford. Her previous book, Skywater, was named an American Library Association Notable Book. She has two adult children and lives in Los Angeles. This is Popham’s third book. Visit her online at: www.melindaworthpopham.com

Editorial Reviews

★ 03/14/2016
In this impeccably written memoir, Popham (Skywater) recounts a spiritual journey launched by the dissolution of her unhappy marriage and her teenage daughter’s descent into an intractable depression. Set in the late 1990s, the story moves from Los Angeles to Yale Divinity School and back again as the author allows herself a grace period in which to rebuild her sense of self, “after having my interior taken down to the bare studs by the events of the past five years.” She describes at a leisurely pace, with meticulous detail, what she learns from “mundane miracles and minor accidents, those spiritual fender benders that are collisions with grace itself.” The struggles of a turtle to get through a fence and cross the road serve as a metaphor for her own struggles to reach God. She is humble and honest about her shortcomings, as when she erupts with anger and foul language at unsuspecting passers-by when she and her dog get lost, and about achievements as well. When she concludes that her vocation is ordination to “my plain old ordinary sacred self,” she proves herself a highbrow, refined, spiritual sister to Anne Lamott. (BookLife)

Publishers Weekly

2016-03-02
In this debut memoir, a woman struggles with her daughter's illness and seeks answers while getting a graduate degree in divinity school. Popham (Skywater, 2001) writes that she never "identified" with her East Coast husband's wealth and always longed for a life more meaningful than her "bland and lacking" Midwest upbringing promised. Her memoir explores this search for meaning, and its first section chronicles her divorce and her daughter Ella's transformation from a typical teenager to a troubled young woman battling a life-threatening mental illness. Her observations of this time, involving therapists and psychiatric wards, range from biting, dark comedy—such as the nurses' simple classification of disorders as involving "food or mood"—to the powerful, quiet desperation of helplessness. These insights make her world feel very real, and every new therapy arrives with great suspense and relatable doubt. After it seemed that Ella was on the road to recovery, Popham gravitated to Christianity. She inquired about religious school for her son before blurting out, "No, wait! The hell with my son. I want to go to Yale Divinity School!" Surprised by this revelation, she soon found herself studying for a master's degree in religion in her 50s. She writes of struggling to overcome loneliness and the inherent awkwardness of being a nontraditional student while also incorporating her intensive education into her understandings of spirituality and of herself. This second part of the memoir lacks the immediacy and drama that propels the first so well; overall, the narrative is most powerful when it focuses on Ella. However, Popham achieves a remarkable balance in her prose, crafting an accessible, approachable, and warm persona without ever sacrificing her intelligence or her profound knowledge. Readers will relate to her as a student who's initially in over her head, scrambling for the dictionary, but will also be impressed by how she uses the work of great theologians to craft meaningful interpretations of her daily life, spirituality, and difficult times. A well-crafted autobiography that blends tense family drama with a deep, multifaceted view of spirituality and the rewards of personal edification.

Kirkus Reviews