If you’re as fascinated by elephants as I am, this book is a must read. In relating his experiences with a wild herd on his reserve in Zululand, Lawrence Anthony shows the remarkable and uncanny communication skills one human can develop when learning to connect with these magnificent creatures. Through his story we also get to witness the sophisticated social skills that elephants possess, and how deep their bonds are with each other. This book moved me deeply.
Congratulations Butch Batchelor!
My first ghost-writing assignment is complete, and the book is published. I am so impressed by Butch Batchelor’s tenacity. It was just over a year ago that he contacted me to ask if I would write the story of his daughter, Taryn, who has autism. During that year there were long periods where we couldn’t meet to work, but he never wavered in his determinations to see this project through. Following is the forward I wrote for his book.
When Butch first contacted me to ask if I’d be the ghost-writer for Forever Twelve I was touched by his faith in my ability to write it, but I was also reluctant to accept the invitation. I write novels for teens. I throw one problem after another at my characters but still make everything turn out okay in the end. With a memoir I would need to stick to the facts. Would I be able to write Taryn’s story in a way that was compelling enough to make people want to read it? I did not want to disappoint Butch.
But Butch, being Butch, was very persuasive. We met for coffee and immediately I could sense how devoted he was to his family, and how desperately he wanted Taryn’s remarkable story to be recorded. When he told me that she had ‘crashed through all the barriers’, I was hooked. I wanted to hear her story and I wanted to help Butch tell it. Continue reading
I just heard the sweetest sound…
…the laughter of two of my daughters, together, making breakfast.
It’s a sound I once took for granted.
All three of my daughters have ‘flown the coop’ in various ways and for various lengths of time, for work, for school, and one now has her own home. I see each of them as often as I can, but because they have lived in different parts of the world, these two daughters have not sat at my table, together, for two whole years.
What a lovely sound it was. And how much lovelier it will be when I have all three of them together over the Xmas holidays.
The sound of them laughing together is not something I will ever take for granted again.
A Season of Symbols
It’s December 1st. The crazy season is upon us. Each year when I find myself becoming grouchy about all the expectations that the season brings I reread this list of Seasonal Symbols which reminds me of why we do these Christmas-y things and I feel grounded once again. The list was written by Harold Rosen, a former minister of the North Shore Unitarian Church and with it he invites us to “look behind the all-too-familiar things, and see the Larger Reality they represent.”
Season Of Symbols
Gifts – they are more than stuffed boxes covered with shiny paper and ribbons; they are tangible tokens of all those thoughtful things we wanted to ‘do’ for our loved ones and friends, all year long, but never got around to it.
Cards – they are more than donations to Hallmark and overtime pay for the postal service; they are humble hints of the much we’d like to say if only time, emotional strength and eloquence abounded.
Lights – they are more than electrical fire hazards and jobs for the handy-person in our midst; they conquer the darkness of season and soul with a glimpse of celestial splendour.
Carols – they are more than memory-markers and excuses for extra choir rehearsals; they are auditory proof that heaven is nigh, and that the layers of tradition can heal the layers of our pain.
Angels – they are more than plastic ornaments on trees… they are those whispers we hear just in time, saying “you have what it takes.’ ‘Good deeds can be fun.’ ‘Things pass, but Love abides’ and ‘all will turn out well, despite appearances.’
Thank you for these reminders, Harold.
Peace.
Finding God on the Beach
Shortly after my father passed away I took my daughter – who was about 5 at the time – to the cemetery where he was buried. She stared at his grave, puzzled. Then she looked up at me and asked, “If Grandpa is down there, how can he also be up there?” She pointed at the sky.
I don’t know who had talked to her about the concept of heaven, but clearly she felt it was in the sky, and that was where Grandpa now resided.
I probably mumbled something about his spirit being in heaven but the truth was that my own beliefs about God and heaven were fuzzy. It took my father’s death and my daughter’s question to nudge me into finding a spiritual home that was a good fit for my family.
I found that home in the Unitarian church, a liberal religion where each member is encouraged to seek out beliefs that feel true and right for them, so now I am always on the lookout for descriptions of God that fit with my own notion of what God is. I was on a Maui beach when I stumbled across the following passage from Signals, by Joel Rothchild . So fitting.
“God is present everywhere, so we are all collectively part of God. It is as if we are all infinitesimally tiny grains of sand on a giant beach, and the beach is God and we each have a responsibility to polish our own grain of sand so the beach is as radiant as possible.”
And here is another one by Forrester Church, from Everyday Miracles.
“The power which I cannot explain or know or name, I call ‘God’. God is not God’s name. God is my name for the mystery that looms within and arches beyond the limits of my being. When I pray to God, God’s answer comes to me from within, and not beyond. God’s answer is ‘Yes’, not to the specifics of my prayer but in response to my hunger for meaning and peace.”
Ah, yes.
And now I am off to ‘polish my grain of sand’.
Book Club Blues
Book Club meets on Sunday. I’m the moderator this month, the one who leads the discussion. I want it to be a lively dialogue, a reflection on the various themes, the research, the eloquent writing. I want to hear how people related to the characters, the relevance the story had on members’ own lives, the nuggets of Truth that were found on its pages.
There’s only one problem: I hated the selected book. Continue reading
Thank you BC Bookworld…
…for posting such a lovely review of Allegra in the Fall 2013 issue. And thank you to my dear friend and photographer extraordinaire Leslie Thomas for the author photo!
Wow. That Woman Can Write!
Flight Behavior, by Barbara Kingsolver, is by far the best book I read this summer. (Well, State of Wonder by Ann Patchett was right up there. Two amazing books. One summer. Yes!)
From the back cover… “In a dazzling page-turner…Kingsolver quietly questions the future of our fragile planet.” (Elle)
That quote sums the book up nicely. I am flabbergasted at the way she can weave all kinds of science into a thoroughly compelling story.
Although the characters were unlike any people I know, they were fully nuanced, believable and sympathetic.
Okay, I suspect that at book club next week there will be some grumbling about ‘too much butterfly information’. Kingsolver certainly did her research and she did risk overloading the reader with too many facts, but I thought she did an impressive job of telling a story first, then subtlety sliding in an urgent message about climate change. This book entertains like a novel should, while simultaneously delivering unsettling scientific facts.
I feel less guilty about my obsessive novel-reading habit when I know I am learning something too.
Another good review of ‘Allegra’!
Thank you Booklist!
“Hrdlitschka allows Allegra to tell her own story and her fine ear for teen emotion is well displayed in scenes that reveal Allegra’s social anxiety and panic attacks, her sorrow and disbelief over her parents’ crumbling marriage, and her resistance to unfamiliar feelings of love as handsome, young Mr. Rocchelli begins to fill the emptiness in her life. Allegra turns from dancing to composition as Mr. Rocchelli challenges her to write a full score from a melody he composed, and the metaphor is apt as Allegra runs with the assignment, sinking herself into a new obsession. Teens with a passion for the arts will see themselves in Allegra, whose intensity and flaws make her perfectly relatable.”
Passion
One of my passions – primates
Imagine how different our encounters with new acquaintances would be if we started the conversation with “What are you passionate about?” instead of “What do you do?” (for a living)
For the lucky ones, the answer would be the same, (they are passionate about their work) but for most others ~ their faces are bound to light up with this opportunity to talk about the things that they love, whether it’s cooking, playing sports, bee-keeping, watching old movies, working out, volunteering, gardening, throwing theme parties, travelling or restoring old cars. They will launch into an enthusiastic description, and they’ll immediately like you for asking the question, and they’ll like you even more if you really listen to the answer.
Another passion – Coola and Grinder at the Grouse Mountain Wildlife Refuge
I’m one of the lucky ones. My careers and passions have always been one and the same, first teaching, then parenting and finally writing.
Now I’m pursing passions that are not career related, like travel, and wildlife conservation. Ask me about my recent gorilla trek. I’ll try to reign in my excitement, but it will be hard.
So the next time you are at one of those mix-and-mingle kind of events, remember to ask… what do you love to do? With any luck there will be time left over for you to talk about your passions too.
