Everyday Annunciations

"Susan Swetnam enters a labyrinth of grieving when she’s widowed at fifty-four, and through her skillful writing brings the reader along every step of the way. This intensely personal experience offers hope to many who endure incalculable loss. Her stepping stones are Renaissance paintings that depict the Annunciation, the ultimate 'yes' to an unknown script. The author is brutally honest about the shock of interrupting an imagined life’s trajectory, and luminously clear about how Mary’s path might accompany. She alerts readers to 'Gabriel surrogates' and reaches the delightful point of saying to Mary, 'Oh girlfriend, I get what you’re feeling.' After twenty years, tragedy turns to treasure and desert to garden. Lucky the reader who gets to come along for the transformation."
Kathy Coffey is a contributor to Give Us This Day

"Susan Swetnam helps us be on the lookout for the tiny Annunciations that punctuate—and occasionally puncture—our lives. Stepping into paintings of the Annunciation, from the familiar Fra Angelico fresco to Lorenzo Lotto's clearly troubled Mary, she gives us ways to explore our own reactions and emotions when we find ourselves facing a call to change course in unexpected ways. As someone on the cusp of retirement, and who works with young people as they imagine their futures, I appreciated the many lenses Swetnam offers us to see the new seeds God might be sowing."
Michelle Francl-Donnay is the author of Prayer, Biblical Wisdom for Seeking God, and a contributor to Give Us This Day