I've recently had a spell where I feel like I'm not as grateful as I should be. I feel like a little bitch-- but I've been told that I'm being too hard on myself(?). I sincerely want to live each day with wide eyes and a grateful heart, so I've now embarked on a personal challenge to take note of what makes me smile everyday in hopes that with a smile an even more grateful heart will follow.
Here are a few from this week: the simple beauty of a tiny birds nest outside of Elizabeth's window,
garden fresh, homemade pizza -- made with
equal amounts love &
leftovers!, the hairstylist who reminded me that it takes more than just writing down goals to accomplish them, my biggest compliment: "Stephanie, You're pretty dynamic. " (coming from a pretty dynamic guy himself), the act of mowing the yard giving me the biggest thrill b/c I love the straight lines, cooled canned goods, Mom's excitement to have movie night- just she & I, how sincerely excited (bordering on a very flattering ecstatic state) a lifer-friend of mine was to hear that I'll be in Columbus for a few months, reading on the swing on our back deck, Lady Gray, the fresh zinnias Mom brings home every week from the garden.
...and so much more. I love what makes me smile.
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I always love recommended reads, so here goes with what is filtering through my world these days.... (note: not all of these are recommended)
The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse by Louise Erdrich
Wow, what a read! Definitely one that you have to make space in your head for each and every time you read it. I was told that Louise Erdrich was a legend (in her own right) so I was v. excited about reading my inaugural Erdrich book. It was good, don't get me wrong, but not one of my absolute favs. PLOT: A priest on the Objiwe Reservation is killed and another comes to take his place. It is the stories of multiple families over centuries--loves, deaths, betrayals, loss, sickness...and a parallel story of the 2nd priest's battle over his 'secret' of being a woman and living with the choice to be a Catholic priest and hide this fact his whole life.
What is the whole of our existence but the sound of an appalling love?
On the Road by Jack Kerouac
Since last summer, I have intended to intersperse a 'classic' (of some sorts) as an every-other-book read. After the Erdrich book, Kerouac's book fell into my lap from a hostel in Turkey. I had been meaning to read this book for a super long time because it represents a whole era that I've not read much about. While on the one hand, it was definitely one good to get under my belt (for no other reason that to make me a good conversationalist at a dinner party!), it was not as awesome as I had hoped. The whole book was just one long, uninterrupted experience of a couple of knot-headed guys traipsing all over the US. I guess I could relate b/c my brother could totally be one of these guys, but in actuality, I thought most of what they did was pretty lame. A must read but don't expect not to be able to put it down.
Since last summer, I have intended to intersperse a 'classic' (of some sorts) as an every-other-book read. After the Erdrich book, Kerouac's book fell into my lap from a hostel in Turkey. I had been meaning to read this book for a super long time because it represents a whole era that I've not read much about. While on the one hand, it was definitely one good to get under my belt (for no other reason that to make me a good conversationalist at a dinner party!), it was not as awesome as I had hoped. The whole book was just one long, uninterrupted experience of a couple of knot-headed guys traipsing all over the US. I guess I could relate b/c my brother could totally be one of these guys, but in actuality, I thought most of what they did was pretty lame. A must read but don't expect not to be able to put it down.
“They danced down the streets like dingledodies, and I shambled after as I’ve been doing all my life after people who interest me, because the only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones that never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn…”
- Jack Kerouac, On the Road, Part 1, Ch. 1“I woke up as the sun was reddening; and that was the one distinct time in my life, the strangest moment of all, when I didn’t know who I was — I was far away from home, haunted and tired with travel, in a cheap hotel room I’d never seen, hearing the hiss of steam outside, and the creak of the old wood of the hotel, and footsteps upstairs, and all the sad sounds, and I looked at the cracked high ceiling and really didn’t know who I was for about fifteen strange seconds.”
- Jack Kerouac, On the Road, Part 1, Ch. 3
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