No Eye Can See A Novel of Kinship, Courage, and Faith

NO EYE CAN SEE By Jane Kirkpatrick Suggested Study Guide Book Two, Kinship and Courage Historical Series "The real journey of discovery," wrote Marcel Proust, "lies not in seeking new landscapes but in seeing with new eyes." No Eye Can See, Book Two in the Kinship and Courage Historical series, invites such a journey, to look anew at the stories of our lives and find the healing strength within them. All Together in One Place, the first book in the series, presented a journey of remarkable women confronting the landscapes of rivers and deserts, lost loved ones and uncertainty. Theirs was a journey of refugees separated from their homes. No Eye Can See follows these women through the wilderness of relationships: relationships with others, with their past and their future longings, with themselves. It is also a story of being in bondage and what it takes to be free. Each of the women in No Eye Can See struggled with what the traditional trail song calls "missing what we left behind." Some of what they left behind weighed them down as much as Lura's knife sharpener or Mazy's bonnet dresser. Past mistakes, guilt, anger, blame and accusations, fear and anxiety, and hurt feelings kept them more tired than yoking oxen in the morning and robbed them of hope. Their inability to find new ways to see themselves, confront the lures of culture, and change their circumstances held them hostage as surely as if they'd been physically bound. Few of us are physically blind. Few of us have someone in our life pursuing us or attempting to dominate our thoughts. More of us mourn the loss of things as they were before a loved one left, before our world turned upside down. And many of us are blind to the possibilities before us or within us. We allow circumstances and past choices to haunt us in our daily lives, and we fail to acknowledge that we are indeed immigrants in a time and place made new each day. The words we use, the focus we have, the small stories we tell ourselves - either carry us through the fray of car pool complications and family demands and disappointments or hold us hostage and separated from the joys promised "to those who love God." Like Suzanne, we run the risk of believing we can do it all ourselves and may be blinded to the gifts of the Spirit given to help us accomplish the longings of our hearts, meant to help us through the wilderness experiences. It is my hope that through No Eye Can See, each of you will find new meaning in your own stories. It's long been my belief that meaning arrives wrapped inside stories, and until we discover the meaning of them, we're destined to wander in the wilderness even though we've been given the promised land. Thank you for making this wilderness journey with these remarkable men and women - and with me. -Jane Kirkpatrick Suggested Study Questions 1.The title, No Eye Can See, comes from the verse in 1 Corinthians 2:9. "No eye has seen, no ear has heard nor mind conceived of all the good God has in store for those who love him." What kinds of "good" did Mazy and Ruth and Suzanne and Tipton deprive themselves of by refusing to see? What allowed them to change? Has guilt, accusation, or blame ever changed anything? 2.The word parable comes from words meaning "to throw along beside." Select one of the women's stories and consider how their story is "thrown beside" your own. How is your life journey like theirs and how is it different? 3.What held Suzanne hostage? Why was it so difficult for her to accept help? When did she finally realize that being strong did not require doing it all alone? How did she change her life after that point? WhKirkpatrick, Jane is the author of 'No Eye Can See A Novel of Kinship, Courage, and Faith' with ISBN 9781578562336 and ISBN 1578562333.