“You do not need to know precisely what is happening, or exactly where it is all going. What you need is to recognize the possibilities and challenges offered by the present moment, and to embrace them with courage, faith and hope.”
– Thomas Merton
Art
Breakfast Musings
It’s always a good sign when I want to take a photograph of something, even if it is only my breakfast, and even better when I want to write about it. Still fighting some persistent flu or virus, I have been using all my energy these last 6 days to keep up with my workload. Creativity on my own behalf has hardly been an issue. Most days, just getting up and moving has been my primary focus. I’m sure you’ve been there.
But this morning I planned on making a hot breakfast and including the most luscious organic strawberries folded in and on top. What you see is a delicious brown rice farina. Yum! I’m not a shill for Bob’s Red Mill, really I’m not, but I do love many of their products, all of which are whole grain. If not organic, they are all non-GMO, and knowing my food is safe and not gene-spliced makes me a happy camper. As for the yes, pricey, organic strawberries, I look at it this way. Although I am all for cooking with produce in season, I’ve come to the conclusion that, as is often true in life, exceptions can be made. On the plus side, berries are phenomenally rich in anti-oxidants. I recently read about a study where women who faithfully ate strawberries 2 times a week actually reduced their risk of cancer. (Blueberries are another powerful anti-oxidant fruit.) The other plus is that because mainstream strawberries are the most heavily pesticide-sprayed fruit in existence, buying organic also buys me peace of mind.
Now before I sign off, take a look at that bowl. It was given to me as a gift by a friend about 14 years ago and is my favorite bowl for hot cereal all fall and winter. It’s the perfect size, has a handle, but most importantly, features the artwork of the so very talented wildlife artist, Marjolein Bastin. I know for some time she had an arrangement with Hallmark, and it was fairly easy to find her wonderful work, now a little harder. I’ve bought her calendars in the past, from which I’ve plucked a print to mat and frame in my kitchen. Her work is so lovely, why not toddle over and take a look? Bastin is a modern day artist whose work is something to emulate.
And so I’ve mused. Isn’t it wonderful how some of the simplest things in life can brighten our day? Good food, friends, inspiring art … it needn’t take much to bring us a bit of happiness and gratitude. Thanks for stopping by and sharing breakfast with me, and may your day be warm and bright!
Day of Love
We interrupt this day of seemingly endless shoveling, digging out, car cleaning and bright red cheeks to bring you a message of love for Valentine’s Day …
“To worship rightly is to love each other,
Each smile a hymn, each kindly deed a prayer.”
~ John Greenleaf Whittier
Happy Valentine’s Day!
Horse Sketch – Keeping My Hand In
Sometimes there is just too much to do … as I’m sure any of you can attest. Between work and shoveling snow … and shoveling snow … and shoveling snow … and just taking care of day to day life, things that really matter can sometimes be sitting on the sidelines. Children’s books are always in my head, so if I don’t have the time to be writing or dummying, illustrating or prepping something to send to an agent or editor, I can do something else … I can turn out a sketch.
This sketch is of a bay pony at water’s edge and from a calendar given to me by a friend who is so helpful in keeping me inspired to write. Well, this time, I drew, but that’s OK, because I’ve still got my hand in.
The Book Thief
It is not very often in my experience that you find a book and the movie made from it both outstanding, but in the case of The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, I do. I just finished reading it for the second time … my first a couple years ago, but after seeing the film, I dove back in and read it again, and enjoyed it even more.
The Book Thief is promoted as a YA novel, but it cannot help but reach the heart of any reading adult. Told over a period of about 5 years, the story takes place in Germany during Hitler’s rise to power. The heroine, Liesel, is being surrendered, along with her brother, to another family to foster as the mother cannot afford their care. The sickly brother passes away on the train ride to Molching, is buried in a patch of snowy land alongside that town’s train station. And this is where the book thief, Liesel, steals her first book.
The tale that follows is about Liesel’s life with her foster parents, Hans and Rosa Hubermann, her new and very dear friend, Rudy, and Max, the Jew the Hubermann’s come to hide in their basement. And, of course, it is about Liesel’s learning to read and her stealing books.
There are two factors that set this book apart from so many others. First is Zusak’s exquisite use of language; the book must be read to truly appreciate the author’s brilliance with words. Second is the narrator … Death. Not creepy Death of some stereotypic kind, but a narrator who shares what it is like to gather souls endlessly; how he is present and exhausted at every war; how he sometimes must carry the souls of numerous adults at once, perhaps over his shoulder, but how he always carries children in his arms. His experience of what it is like to be a gatherer of souls is interspersed but does not dominate his third-person narrative of Liesel and those about her.
Because of this unique take on events, the reader is made aware of this shameful period of history in a way that is like no other I’ve ever read. Zusak develops such compassion for his characters, for the Germans, the Jews they are brainwashed to despise, and even many of the soldiers. And shining in the middle of it all is a little girl, who despite losing those she loves time after time, has the courage and compassion to read to all those huddling in a neighbor’s basement during an air raid, who still can risk sneaking into the wealthy mayor’s house to steal a book, giving her one of the true joys she comes to know, reading.
In the movie, Geoffrey Rush and Emma Watson are outstanding as Hans and Rosa, (Papa and Mama). Liesel is played by a newcomer, Sophie Nelisse, one of literally hundreds of girls who auditioned for the part, and she is perfect.
If you were to choose between reading the book or seeing the movie … I can only recommend both, in whatever order suits you. I cannot imagine you will be disappointed. You can visit The Book Thief‘s official website, (click through the opening page and go to videos, upper left or find additional trailers/videos here), and perhaps gain a taste of the book. Importantly, the author was thrilled with the movie rendition of his book. More importantly, I cannot imagine you reading this book, seeing this movie, and not being touched to the core.
Still A Dreamer 