Ordinary Time: Lessons Learned While Staying Put
Annie B. Jones
HarperOne, 240 pages
Published April 22, 2025
Here: A Spirituality of Staying in a Culture of Leaving
Lydia Sohn
Convergent Books, 208 pages
Published February 25, 2025
Floridian Annie B. Jones imagined a life of travel and adventure before purchasing her own “Shop Around the Corner” like Meg Ryan’s character in “You’ve Got Mail.” She never thought that her independent bookstore would be in small-town Georgia, and that she and her college sweetheart-husband would delight in staying put as friends and colleagues moved on.
Episcopal priest Lydia Sohn simultaneously unpacked boxes in a new home and dreamed of all the places she could go, even checking them out on Zillow. When she embraced the ancient tradition of Benedictine stability, she learned to experience peace and joy, right where she was.
Both women share these stories in new memoirs filled with accessible wisdom and winsome stories.
If time permits, read both! If you must choose, Lydia Sohn’s Here is ideal for those seeking an interior journey with stops in Taize, France, and Yale Divinity School before landing on a description of life as an Episcopal priest (as well as wife, mother, and daughter of immigrants). Sohn’s story is peppered with insights into her parents’ lives, and the realization that staying put (and fitting in) was a privilege not afforded to her parents.
Ordinary Time is a good choice for those who appreciate a down-to-earth story of making peace with the realities of daily life and faith. While not explicitly a de-construction story, Ordinary Time tracks Jones’ slow realization that the constrictive faith of her childhood no longer suited. “I feel no such tie,” Jones writes when she returns for a funeral at her home church. Her writing is filled with self-reflection, as she “repents” of cynicism, lowers her expectations of church, and realizes that “seasonal” relationships aren’t necessarily shallow; customers, employees and friends come and go, and that’s okay.
Both authors recognize that putting down deep roots in a single place allows for growth and exploration. Sohn writes, “(w)e leave and explore in order to be more rooted,” citing examples from St. Augustine to Luke Skywalker. Sohn’s wanderlust took her to Taize, an intentional Christian community. But her call came in a silent, interior experience — God came to her as friend, walked alongside her on the journey, and instructed her to “be a friend to others.” Similarly, Jones’ musings led her to realize that while the church sometimes lets her down, Jesus does not. “Jesus is Jesus, and my expectations of him are met every time,” she writes. Like the trees described in Psalm 1, Sohn and Jones’ rooted lives bear fruit, and they prosper right where they are.
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