So many months have passed since I last picked up anything more exciting than the latest issue of 'Woman and Home' or a cookbook, that I was beginning to feel a bit word desperate.
Looking through my bookcase, I just couldn't bear the idea of picking up books that I'd left behind to read later: The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak, for example. Such books just seemed too heavy and too congested with ideas for my life at the moment.
Then I saw, sitting quietly and calmly beside the others, Nan Watkins' 'East Toward Dawn'. Nan used to work at Western Carolina University's Hunter Library and was a friend to many an international traveler. Whilst I was working at WCU, she published this gorgeous travelogue which not only explains her solo journey around the world at the age of 60 but also explains her relationship with life (and hence our relationship with life).
I'm now making my way through its gentle pages, and so am traveling with her through Ireland, Germany, Nepal and now India as she visits the various International students who stayed with her when they were in the US. As she travels she muses on her life as a child, as a women, as a wife-mother, and then as an older single woman. Such an approach allows the reader to tap into these differennt layers and to draw the messages needed at the time of reading. It's a delicious process, especially as she doesn't so much question her life as she does examine it as one does a stone found on a beach or, indeed, a flower found on an Irish hillside.
Read:
"Turning my head, I saw a yellow wildflower bobbing in the wind. It made me think of Joseph Campbell, who once held up a daisy and, with a broad smile, asked, 'Meaning? People want life to have meaning? Does this flower ask, 'What is the meaning of my life?' No! It just blooms. It just is!' And that's the way I see my life. Just being; no questions asked."
So, however you're seeing your life at the moment, I hope you're just not asking too many questions but more just 'bobbing in the wind.'
;-)
hugs,
Robyn
ps/want to buy a copy? Try http://www.amazon.com/East-Toward-Dawn-Journey-Adventura/dp/1580050646/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1260860750&sr=8-1 or http://www.amazon.co.uk/East-Toward-Dawn-Journey-Adventura/dp/1580050646/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1260862372&sr=8-2 (with the UK site you have to wait a bit longer but I would say that this is a book that is not only worth the wait but is about the wait!).
pps/If anyone is in contact with Nan today, can you please say a heart warming hey from me...
4 comments:
got the book ordered in the libray woo-hoo, loved your stories, never heard of of some of your saints. With the pictures, a great experience. Little kids do get frightened by santa clause - he is so bigggggggggg.
Marion,
The words 'Perfect' and 'Marion' and 'You are' were uttered in the same sentence today! Yep, your gift arrived and made me smile. I have photos of Jack playing with his new toy truck and will send them on.. and, as Ben has promised to let Jack test his boat in the bath tomorrow, there will probably be even more photos to come. loads of hugs n thanks, Robynxxxx
got the book, what a read, so enjoying it - not one to rush through and I am savouring every word. What a writer
Marion,
I am so glad you have Nan's book. Really, the idea that you reading this blog led to you reading Nan's book tickles me. Have a lovely Christmas and know my thoughts are with you!
hugs,
Robynxxxx
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