cover image Breakfast Epiphanies: Finding Wonder in the Everyday

Breakfast Epiphanies: Finding Wonder in the Everyday

David Anderson. Beacon Press (MA), $18.95 (155pp) ISBN 978-0-8070-2818-6

Church rector and Pennsylvania Episcopalian columnist Anderson gathers some 40 short essays on the intersections between life and faith, many previously published as columns, in a slim volume that sparkles with intelligence and honesty. (Don't let that precious title fool you.) Chronicling ""ordinary moments"" in which God unexpectedly appears, when ""we are susceptible to a new, sometimes offbeat awareness of the divine presence,"" Anderson shows how the quotidian sparks notions of the sublime. The poignant and funny title essay describes a morning when Anderson and his family had ""cereal and bile for breakfast""-and how Anderson, as a result, decided to do a better job of being there for his children. Whether contemplating the ""work"" of grief, the ""capitalist production"" of Christmas or the path, not ""to happiness,"" but ""of happiness,"" Anderson is a calming, inspiring voice of reason and faith.