Through the lens of personal experience, Elise Tegegne reflects on the redemptive glimmers in ordinary challenges ranging from canceled flights to insomnia. In Praise of Houseflies offers readers an opportunity to listen for what their own everyday quandaries can teach and to delight in the abundant graces blossoming within them. Combining the exploratory spirit of Montesquieu, the lyricism of Kathleen Norris, and the gentle spiritual musing of Henri Nouwen, the book is an essential message of hope, joy, and redemption imparted through deep, nourishing reflection.

"Wisdom arrives over time, and nearly always as a result of quiet choices made in the midst of affliction. In her essay collection, In Praise of Houseflies, Elise Tegegne offers hard-won insight into how even our sufferings-exile, isolation, privation, humiliation, loss, pain, and grief-might be recognized as the very means by which the soul becomes a trusting and trustworthy source of stillness and of peace." -Scott Cairns, author of The End of Suffering: Finding Purpose in Pain

"This book is a blessing-an elegant reminder of how grace is threaded through the day, always available-especially in challenges, annoyances and disappointments. Elise's lively reflections range from small moments of insight to rich stories of how God shows up "lovely in limbs, lovely in eyes not his." Her openness to receiving that grace and sharing it, and the ways she calls in the wisdom of spiritual writers and teachers are timely encouragements to live into hard moments with hope and confident prayer and expectation of adventure." -Marilyn McEntyre, author of Caring for Words in a Culture of Lies