A review by allisonjpmiller
Between the Dark and the Daylight: Embracing the Contradictions of Life by Joan Chittister

4.0

This is not a self-help book or a deep dive into the struggles of the human condition—rather, it's a collection of essays that succinctly captures the many paradoxes (I know; I am nothing if not predictable) we wrestle with on a daily basis, the ones that tend to haunt us at night and, during the day, interrupt our desperate attempts at cultivating peace.

Chittister's pearls of wisdom here are valuable precisely because it's obvious that they are the result of experience, not just of contemplation. She doesn't tie questions and problems up with a nice, neat bow by the end of each essay; she leaves them intact, but illuminated in ways I found incredibly helpful.

I especially appreciate the way she busts open the myth that peace is "a state of calm":

We grasp for false calm at every turning of the day and call ourselves damned or cursed or burdened or beaten without it. And yet, if we were forced to live in the peace that is listlessness, we would die from the tedium of it all. We seduce ourselves into thinking that we like the lack of challenge. We forget how dull becalmed can be.

Essay subjects range from the dark side of security, wealth, and success to the merits of poverty, failure, exhaustion, femininity/masculinity, loss, friendship, solitude, depression, the unknown... you know: All that fun everyday life stuff. I couldn't find a thing I disagreed with in any of them.