The Presence of Absence: A Story About Busyness, Brokenness, and Being Beloved

by Linda Hoye, TBD

Overview

We wear busyness as a badge of accomplishment and personal success. But when we use it to fill a void, being busy can become an addiction. Busyness helps us feel better—or feel nothing—but the benefit doesn’t come without cost.

Adoptee Linda Hoye used it to ease the ache she felt over the loss of her first mother’s love. She retired from the corporate world, looking forward to the opportunity to slow down and turn her attention to creative pursuits like photography, writing, and gardening, but found herself stuck. So accustomed to being busy, she had forgotten how to be anything else.

This is a spiritual memoir about a longing many of us have for something we struggle to articulate. It’s about fear, brokenness, and the mystery of stillness, solitude, and silence. It is the story of a sacred journey to a lost mother, a found family, and an encounter with divine love.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780993730306
Publisher:	Benson Books
Publication date:	05/26/2020
Pages:	220
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.50(d)

Table of Contents

Part 1 - Busy

Chapter 1 - Searching

Chapter 2 - Mind-Numbing

Chapter 3 - The Presence of Absence

Chapter 4 - Dark Night

Chapter 5 - Fear and Faith

Part 2 - Broken

Chapter 6 - Chosen

Chapter 7 - Once You Are Real

Chapter 8 - Delights

Chapter 9 - Saturating

Chapter 10 - Fallow

Part 3 - Beloved

Chapter 11 - Dreaming

Chapter 12 - Acceptable Worship

Chapter 13 - Long Lost Family

Chapter 14 - Sweet Life

Epilogue

Acknowledgments

Suggested Reading

About the Author

Endnotes

Editorial Reviews

"Culminating in mystical experience sustained by reading classical spiritual literature, her story will offer hope to all who recognize in themselves an inconsolable, unnamed, melancholy and joyful, longing."

—Shirley Showalter, author of Blush: A Mennonite Girl Meets a Glittering World

"Both memoir and spiritual journal, this memoir gently invites the reader to join the writer in her sacred search."

—Marian L. Beaman, author of Mennonite Daughter: The Story of a Plain Girl

"We all would do well to consider her call to solitude, introspection, and a recognition that God chooses each of us to be uniquely beloved."

—Linda K Thomas, memoir coach and author of Please, God, Don't Make Me Go: A Foot-Dragger's Memoir and Grandma's Letters from Africa.

"Engaging, deeply personable part memoir/part meditation guide . . . this book will touch many in a healing way, especially adoptees who are searching for answers and reconciliation. . . "

—Kathleen Pooler, Author of Ever Faithful to His Lead: My Journey Away From Emotional Abuse and Just the Way He Walked: A Mother’s Story of Healing and Hope

From the Publisher