{"id":11747,"date":"2025-10-01T18:16:37","date_gmt":"2025-10-01T18:16:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/farefwd.com\/?p=11747"},"modified":"2025-10-01T18:32:38","modified_gmt":"2025-10-01T18:32:38","slug":"in-praise-of-houseflies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/farefwd.com\/index.php\/2025\/10\/01\/in-praise-of-houseflies\/","title":{"rendered":"In Praise of Houseflies"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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Broken into Glory<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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Rather than annoyances to grumble over, life’s minor inconveniences might be the refiner’s fire by which we are transformed and draw closer to God.<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Review by Tessa Carman<\/em><\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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There once was a girl who desired to do great things for God\u2014become a martyr who suffers the greatest tortures for Christ, to be \u201ca soldier for the Church\u201d dying \u201con the field of battle.\u201d Hers was an unremarkable, quiet, middle-class life in many ways, but St. Th\u00e9r\u00e8se of Lisieux committed to let \u201cno little sacrifice pass, no look, no word\u2014profiting by the littlest actions, and doing them out of love.\u201d<\/p>

I thought often of St. Th\u00e9r\u00e8se when reading Elise Tegegne\u2019s debut, In Praise of Houseflies: Meditations on the Gifts in Everyday Quandaries. <\/em>As little Th\u00e9r\u00e8se wished to be a martyr, but was content to live her \u201clittle\u201d way, so Tegegne notes that she writes within what is also a comparatively comfortable middle-class life, while also endeavoring to profit\u2014that is, to love God better\u2014by every sacrifice.<\/p>

In one of her epigraphs, Tegegne cites Kathleen Norris\u2019s The Quotidian Mysteries<\/em>, wherein Norris notes the paradox that it is in \u201cthe everyday that we find the possibilities for the greatest transformation.\u201d Like St. Th\u00e9r\u00e8se, then, Tegegne takes such a claim seriously, and she invites her readers into a series of meditations that endeavor to view unremarkable daily annoyances and pet peeves, from greater heartaches like loneliness and leave-taking of loved ones to the smaller \u201chouseflies\u201d such as laundry and line-waiting, through \u201cthis redeemed vision\u201d\u2014to look for the grace within, and not despite, small griefs and irritations. Tegegne quotes Simone Weil, one of her book\u2019s guiding spirits: \u201cWe must not wish for the disappearance of any of our troubles, but grace to transform them.\u201d Indeed, it is only by love that our troubles are transformed. It is only through Christ\u2019s suffering that our own suffering, however slight or however terrible, is made truly redemptive.<\/p>

The book\u2019s structure is roughly chronological, with each part focusing on a different season of Tegegne\u2019s life: Part One, \u201cPilgrimage,\u201d on school and college and her first job, teaching French in Ethiopia (the essays focus on the quandaries of humiliation, loneliness, and saying goodbye); Part Two, \u201cStasis,\u201d on graduate school and marriage (boredom, cancellations, hunger, waiting); Part Three, \u201cConception,\u201d on young married life, waiting for and then conceiving a child (unknowing, annoyances, fear, winter); and Part Four, \u201cMotherhood,\u201d on the new contours of life as a young mother (cleaning, sleep deprivation, pain). Her task is not to provide a theodicy, but rather to see what everyday afflictions have to teach us and what opportunities for small transformations they provide. Each essay explores how each quandary manifests in the everyday (I admit that, as a mother of four, I was particularly interested in her chapter on sleep deprivation!) and she delves deeply into each one until the gold of insight is uncovered.<\/p><\/div>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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Humiliation breaks us open so that we can be healed: our pride and false illusions can be purged and burned away, allowing room for Christ\u2019s truth to flower.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Her first essay opens strong, with perhaps the thorniest everyday quandary: humiliation. Tegegne begins her exploration by telling of her early failures teaching French to students in Ethiopia, which to someone who is used to doing everything well and perfectly, cut deep. Why is it so hard to face my mediocrity<\/em>? she wonders. She writes:<\/p>

Humiliation has a way of turning your bowels inside out, even as you gag with the reality of being espied. One of the true but shameful parts of you is naked in the day. You\u2019re ashamed, not (oftentimes) because of your weakness, but because you got caught in it.<\/h2>

Now somebody knows the secret: you\u2019re not perfect<\/em>.<\/h2>

Such an opening in the self provides \u201chumiliation\u2019s gift.\u201d It is a gift to \u201caccept my own mediocrity,\u201d she writes, noting that this sense of our own mediocrity is, as Simone Weil put it, a knowledge that is above all \u201cto be desired.\u201d This knowledge is \u201ca bright burning of the dead and dross,\u201d Tegegne reflects, \u201cThat from the crushed stubble of my prided fortress, I might rise more whole and more real.\u201d Humiliation breaks us open so that we can be healed: our pride and false illusions can be purged and burned away, allowing room for Christ\u2019s truth to flower. The essay ends with a consideration of the image of a violet. A violet \u201cdoes not lift its head in haughtiness; its leaves extend upon the ground\u201d and because it is so low, it withstands hurricane winds. To be a violet, Tegegne muses, would mean to be \u201chumiliation-proof\u201d\u2014humble, but not humiliated:<\/p>

Perhaps if I knew I was low, no one could make me lower. If I was deeply acquainted with my weaknesses and humble and vulnerable about them, it would not be surprising or shameful to be seen in an unflattering light. And if I knew who I was, if I were rooted in my God-named belovedness, then no one could call me unloved. If I were grounded in love, no kale-in-the-teeth or broken zippers or abstruse French pronouns could make me feel unworthy.<\/h2>

Even when crushed under heels, the violets ascend again towards the light.<\/h2>

The violet is a fitting emblem for each of Tegegne\u2019s essays\u2014it is through each affliction, each grace\u2014sleep deprivation, loneliness, infertility\u2014that she finds a way to ascend closer to Christ.<\/p>

As befitting an appreciator of Weil, Tegegne does not flinch from the thorny thickets of life nor from the knotty parts of Scripture, nor from the dangerousness of God. In her essay on unknowing, \u201cVeiled Faces,\u201d she draws from the prophet Isaiah as she meditates on C.S. Lewis\u2019s novel Till We Have Faces<\/em> wherein the character Orual \u201cwrestles with the mysterious opacity of the gods: how they hide behind veils and speak in riddles.\u201d And yet, she considers, perhaps darkness is the path to deeper seeing. Tegegne explores this paradox through Isaiah: \u201cAnd I will lead the blind in a way they do not know, \/ in paths that they have not known I will guide them.<\/em>\u201d Tegegne then asks whether \u201cI really only want to know things (the next step, the right purchase, the heart behind the mask) for myself, to strengthen my independence\u2014rather than to know God.\u201d And yet, is God not the greatest thing that we should seek to know? Why, then, does he seem so hidden, she asks:<\/p>

And yet God seeks to know me.
Not knowing draws me to the floorboards. I grapple for ground, for some kind of rock. God feels nearer here. Perhaps it is divine love that leads me into darkness. Perhaps God craves my nearness and redemption so much that he leads me through paths that press me to himself.
Darkness, then, can be a grace.<\/h2>

Perhaps darkness, then, can be \u201cfertile soil,\u201d in which we can root ourselves further in God.<\/p><\/div>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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In a way, each of Tegegne\u2019s meditations is a luminous praise of dying.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Tegegne weaves these essays not only as a master of the craft, but also as a generous, courageous, eternity-steeped soul. Tegegne\u2019s writing is river-like: her sentences glide, cascade, and rush, gleaming with reflected light and slaking the desire to drink in beauty even in the humdrum, the banal. Her words are poetry, her care for words evident. Though occasionally there are notes that sound off-key, and with an occasional veering toward the precious and clich\u00e9 (e.g., \u201cthe refusal to see the universe in others\u201d), at its best her prose sings, giving glory to the texture of the everyday, revealing the honor and beauty to ordinary moments, such as pulling luggage to and from a plane. And in this, I believe, her writing reflects a soul truly in love with the great Lover.<\/p>

Tegegne\u2019s is a dangerous quest\u2014in the hands of a lesser writer and lesser person, it would not have worked. But she never balks; she gives us truly rich, illuminating meditations on each quandary. Others have written of the transformation that comes from finding the hidden gifts in small annoyances and everyday sufferings. What distinguishes Tegegne\u2019s writing is that she avoids sentimentality, illuminates the ordinary in her prose, and digs into the hardest parts of Scripture \u2014Job, etc.\u2014with steadfast Christological focus. Her meditations are Scripture-soaked, and her practice of meditation is properly ordered: she rightly points out that meditation and observation for its own sake is worth little to nothing. Each of the gifts in each quandary come from God, and such a connection frames each essay and provides its focus, for it is our relation to God that matters most above all things.<\/p>

During one essay, Tegegne meditates on how holiness<\/em> means set-apartness. This is if we look at the Latin root of our word for saint: sanctus<\/em>. But I also thought of Anglo-Saxon root, h\u00e1lig<\/em>, holy, which comes from h\u00e1l<\/em>, wholeness, haleness. Everyday quandaries are tiny breakings, but this breaking allows Christ to make us whole, if we let it.<\/p>

To be a saint, then, is to be made whole. But first comes many deaths\u2014the \u201cbright burning\u201d away of the dross. In a way, each of Tegegne\u2019s meditations is a luminous praise of dying. We can, we ought, die in many small ways, and every day we are given so many opportunities\u2014amidst pots and pans, car grease and gasoline\u2014to practice such dying, and thereby, to offer every one of our troubles, the petty and the heart-harrowing, for transformation. As that mystic saying goes, if you die before you die, then you won\u2019t die when you die. <\/em>But in this dying, we can then be raised up again, to see more clearly the hem of God\u2019s garment\u2014and we\u2019ll be lucky if we\u2019re not blinded by his light.<\/p><\/div>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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Tessa<\/strong> Carman<\/strong> writes from Virginia Beach, Virginia.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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In Praise of Houseflies: Meditations on the Gifts in Everyday Quandaries<\/strong> was published by Calla Press Publishing on August 19, 2025. Fare Forward <\/em>appreciates their provision of a copy for our reviewer. You can purchase your own copy from the publisher here<\/a>.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rather than annoyances to grumble over, life’s minor inconveniences might be the refiner’s fire by which we are transformed and draw closer to God. Review by Tessa Carman<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":11748,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"ocean_front_end_style_editor":"no","ocean_post_layout":"","ocean_both_sidebars_style":"","ocean_both_sidebars_content_width":0,"ocean_both_sidebars_sidebars_width":0,"ocean_sidebar":"","ocean_second_sidebar":"","ocean_disable_margins":"enable","ocean_add_body_class":"","ocean_shortcode_before_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_after_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_before_header":"","ocean_shortcode_after_header":"","ocean_has_shortcode":"","ocean_shortcode_after_title":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_bottom":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_bottom":"","ocean_display_top_bar":"default","ocean_display_header":"default","ocean_header_style":"","ocean_center_header_left_menu":"","ocean_custom_header_template":"","ocean_custom_logo":0,"ocean_custom_retina_logo":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_height":0,"ocean_header_custom_menu":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_family":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_subset":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_size":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_unit":"px","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_line_height":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_unit":"","ocean_menu_typo_spacing":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_unit":"","ocean_menu_link_color":"","ocean_menu_link_color_hover":"","ocean_menu_link_color_active":"","ocean_menu_link_background":"","ocean_menu_link_hover_background":"","ocean_menu_link_active_background":"","ocean_menu_social_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_links_color":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_color":"","ocean_disable_title":"default","ocean_disable_heading":"default","ocean_post_title":"","ocean_post_subheading":"","ocean_post_title_style":"","ocean_post_title_background_color":"","ocean_post_title_background":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_image_position":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_attachment":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_repeat":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_size":"","ocean_post_title_height":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay":0.5,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay_color":"","ocean_disable_breadcrumbs":"default","ocean_breadcrumbs_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_separator_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_hover_color":"","ocean_display_footer_widgets":"default","ocean_display_footer_bottom":"default","ocean_custom_footer_template":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"ocean_post_oembed":"","ocean_post_self_hosted_media":"","ocean_post_video_embed":"","ocean_link_format":"","ocean_link_format_target":"self","ocean_quote_format":"","ocean_quote_format_link":"post","ocean_gallery_link_images":"on","ocean_gallery_id":[],"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[3,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11747","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-book-review","category-newsletter","entry","has-media"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farefwd.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/In-Praise-of-Houseflies-3D.jpg?fit=1500%2C1383&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/farefwd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11747","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/farefwd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/farefwd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/farefwd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/farefwd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11747"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/farefwd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11747\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11758,"href":"https:\/\/farefwd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11747\/revisions\/11758"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/farefwd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11748"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"ht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