I don’t know about you and where you live, but in my neck of the woods, it’s wet. We get rain, then a little more rain, then thunderstorms. And for those of you who don’t know, I do not live in Seattle where this is normal, I live in good old Bucks County, PA. For what seems like months, it’s been raining. Now normally, I’m fairly passive about weather. But these days, everything in and out of the house (including me) feels like moss is going to start growing on us any moment. I change my clothes five times a day because they all feel damp, except sweats. And despite my general dread of sweats, I’m rocking them. And not to mention, it is interfering with my gardening BIG TIME. I had one day this weekend to get it done, and instead I was struck down with the stomach virus, so that’s a no go. Gardening+worms+gifts of intestines left in my garden by Sebastian the Cat=very, very sick me. So I lay in bed, moaning and generally feeling sorry for myself instead. I don’t understand why it seems that weeds need no sunlight at all, only rain. And my veggies need the sunlight, so the weeds have won this round for sure. I’m trying to get creative and figure out what weeds may be practically used for, but I’ve got nothing except my Revenge Salad in the earlier post. And this year, I planted wildflowers which are great, but they look suspiciously like weeds. And since I’ve never grown them, I really don’t know and I’m afraid to pull them. So hopefully, my weed garden turns into a wildflower garden any day now.
In the meantime, I’ve returned once again to my love of reading to get me by. I started to trace back to what I remember as the first books I remember reading. Can you do that? Go waaaaaay back. And I don’t remember much about….well, much of anything, but I remember this.
My parents are both avid readers, thank Goodness, and I know they read to me. But the first books I remember reading independently, I got from my Aunt Barbara. I remember it was raining the day she gave them to me, so maybe I was complaining like I am now and she thought they’d keep me busy? But I think she just knew I’d love them. If I remember correctly it was a box set, but I know it included The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe. So I tend to think it was Chronicles of Narnia. But I loved that book in particular. So much so that years later, I saw the movie straight away. Me and all of the other parents who had fallen in love with this book, and our kids who looked bored because they hadn’t read the book yet. And the movie, despite its Hollywood special effects treatment, still didn’t compare with what I had drawn inside my head. What a world I had made up.
And this, I’m happy to report, still takes place in my head all of these years later. And the importance of reading is why I don’t go insane each time (out of approximately 350 times a day) my 6 year old asks how to spell something or if S-A-F-E-T-Y (super slow motion) spells safety. Because he’s learning one of the best skills he could ever possess. When I read books with a little magic in them, I have no problem imagining it. Or a vividly described landscape or character. This is something I hope I’ve passed down to my children, because it is one of my absolute favorite things. IMAGINATION! It’s one reason that both of my kid’s favorite book is “Where the Wild Things Are”, because each time I’ve read it to them, I do so with crazy voices and sound effects and jump around when the wild rumpus starts.
So, I ask, when was the last time you had a wild rumpus? Don’t forget to roar your terrible roars!!
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