Filed under: 50 book challenge, As you simplify your life the laws of the universe will, Cricket, Ella, Motherhood, posted in haste
I’m back on a reading kick (it seems to go reading, crafting, tv watching, & back to reading) and am reading two very different books right now. The first is Trees Make the Best Mobiles: Simple Ways to Raise Your Child in a Complex World by Teich & Bravo, and the other is Julia’s Mother: Life Lessons in the Pediatric ER by Bonadio. On the surface, the books have almost nothing in common - one is a series of short meditations on simplicity and empathy in parenting, while the other is a stark picture of childhood traumas - but both inspired me to set out an old blanket and have a (chilly) Spring picnic with my girls.
Both books come at childhood from very different angles to reach the same conclusion: that these tiny people are people, who, if we let them, can teach us tenacity, patience, hope and acceptance. That, while children are more complex than we often give them credit for, it is their simplicity that we can learn the most from. This isn’t at all revolutionary, but it is something that I need reminded of every so often. It’s the woods for the trees I guess - I am with these girls so much (so.much.) that it is easy to focus in on this tantrum, this crying jag, this diaper, and miss the big picture of who they are.
I’m of the school of thought that children are closer to the source - call it the soul, call it the Id, call it the Earth’s energy. Children hear an inner voice that doesn’t logic out possibility. They are not embarrassed by joy or anger; they forgive quickly, and will ask for exactly what they need. I don’t think I am overly romantic about childhood - if you live with a two year old and a 3 month old, it’s hard to be maudlin about a span of time defined by diapers and sleepless nights - but occasionally I can see a moment as an opportunity to reconnect with that source, to slough off the weight of adulthood and sit in the sun, letting the earth spin around us.
But only for a moment, because there are crackers to be unwrapped, swings to be pushed, and small hands to warm between my own.
Filed under: 50 book challenge
Because today is a list-kind-of-day, and I’ve been meaning to jot these down before I forget:
Books finished in 2008:
1. Short Bus
2. Leaper
3. When a Gene Makes You Smell Like a Fish
4. The Center Cannot Hold
5. Logorrhea
6. The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2007
7. Pigs in Heaven
8. Into the Minds of Babes: How Screen Time Affects Children from Birth to Age Five ( I plan to write about this one soon)
9. Waterbaby
10. O My America!
11. Whose World Is This?
12. Larry’s Party
I think there are one or two I have forgotten and I may have to add later, but I think that’s a pretty respectable list for now. I’m still undecided about adding books of poetry (since technically they only take a couple hours to read, but since I reread them over and over and think about them all day long, maybe the hours can be counted…) but maybe they deserve their own list. I also have four “In progress” books on my desk right now, and two “I couldn’t get past page 30″ in a bag by the door.
Is it any wonder that Tom and I are considering buying a used book store? (More on this if anything comes of it. We are currently requesting the accounting books and lord knows what we will find there.)
Passing on the geeky genes.
