"My first year of motherhood I lost prayer," Micha Boyett admits in the introduction to her memoir, Found. A West Texas-bred Baptist girl, Boyett had spent years carving out quiet time to sit and talk to God. But as a sleep-deprived, overwhelmed new mother living in unfamiliar San Francisco, she struggled to hang onto even a shred of the life she had known. When she learned about the Rule of St. Benedict, an ancient document laying out rules and practices for monastic life, Boyett wondered if its rhythms of prayer, work, study and play could apply to her own disordered days.
Structured according to the eight daily prayers of a monastic community, Found traces Boyett's journey through Benedict's Rule, and her quest to reclaim prayer and find peace. She records her failed attempts to pray before her son awoke, her frustration at leaving the ministry career she had loved and many moments of surprising grace in her new life as a stay-at-home mom. Boyett also shares her longtime struggle with anxiety, and her constant striving to measure up to an impossible standard of Christian perfection. At one point, a friend gently gives her a message that will resonate with readers: "Please try not to be so ferocious with yourself."
Wise, comforting and full of grace, Found will appeal to seekers who, like Boyett, are tired of striving and who long to find glimpses of the divine in their everyday lives. --Katie Noah Gibson, blogger at Cakes, Tea and Dreams