The Language of Flowers by Vanessa Diffenbaugh ✔✔✔

This is the story of a young woman who, because she was taken away from her mother at a very young age, is not able to form relationships. She's gone through many foster homes and is usually removed from most of them because of her behaviour, until she comes to live with Elizabeth.  Early on, the reader knows that she has not continued to live with Elizabeth because on her 18th birthday when the book begins, she becomes homeless.  However, she has developed a close relationship and understanding of flowers, and it is this that ultimately - but not without lots of hurdles along the way - saves her.

This was a quick read and entertaining enough.  The best parts are the flowers, and their meanings, and at the end of the novel there's a dictionary of flowers with their meanings.  For example, red carnations mean "my heart breaks", daisies mean "cheerfulness". Holly means "foresight".
Roses:  orange is "fascination",  pink is "grace", red is "love", white is "a heart unacquainted with love" and yellow is "infidelity"  Hmmm - I love yellow roses!  Who am I being unfaithful to, I wonder?

An Unquenchable Thirst by Mary Johnson ✔✔✔✔

I heard Mary Johnson interviewed on Tapestry and decided I would enjoy reading her story. Mary Johnson spent 20 years as a nun in the Missionaries of Charity, the order founded and led by Mother Teresa.  It's sub-titled: "one woman's extraordinary journey of faith, hope and clarity".

It was an unrelenting 20 years of following The Rules as laid down by Mother - as she was called - sisters were not allowed to even touch each other, they lived in poverty as they lived in community , worked long, hard hours, and were told that suffering endeared them even more to Jesus.

Sister Donata - the name Mary was given as a novice - finally left in 1997, just before Mother died.  She had been given some authority over the years, but could never reconcile herself to The Rules and their harshness, even though she "took the discipline and chains" every day, since she believed they made her a better nun.  Despite her many contributions to the order, she was never thanked, and very late in the story, she reveals that Mother never once even called her by name.

Here are some quotes and such that really struck me:

Mother Teresa wore shoes that were several sizes too small for her.  She believed that by doing this, she pleased God and saved souls "I couldn't think of any time Jesus deliberately tried to make life harder for the sake of making it harder"

Sister Dolorosa, the novice mistress, calling out in the night: "I need a man.  I need a man"

Sister Donata was constantly reminded that her doubts and questions, even her dreams, were the devil's work. She would double the strokes of discipline and the hours she wore chains.

There were lots of interesting stories in this book - and people - Father Tom, with whom Mary had a very close personal relationship, Sister Niobe, who was a sexual predator, Sister Frederick who was as nasty as could be all the time, and even Mother herself, who visited quite frequently.  Mary was mostly stationed in Italy, incidentally.

Now, Mary lives in the US, has married, and never goes to church.  "The stories about God no longer ring true...physics and literature and music feel so much more honest than theology.....I've learned to be content with mystery, that the universe and its secrets excite me.... Living mindfully, trying to do good while avoiding harm, works better than keeping the Rules ever did".

There is an extensive video on Mary Johnson on You Tube, and her website, www.anunquenchablethirst.com is very interesting.

See also her "dare to be different" meditation at Location 7427 on my Kindle.  She wrote this after she was condemned by other sisters for holding a young nun who had suffered some mental problems.