My mother recently blogged a quote from a book called "The Painted Drum". I enjoyed the quote and her blog about it, so I asked that she send it to me when she finished so that I might read it. In order to complete the cycle, I shall now blog from it a quote:
"Life will break you. Nobody can protect you from that, and living alone won't either, for solitude will also break you with it's yearning. You have to love. You have to feel. It is the reason you are here on earth. You are here to risk your heart. You are here to be swallowed up. And when it happens that you are broken, or betrayed, or left, or hurt, or death brushes near, let yourself sit by and apple tree and listen to the apples falling all around you in heaps, wasting their sweetness. Tell yourself that you tasted as many as you could." - Louse Erdrich
I enjoyed this passage as I did the entire book, in it one of the lead characters thinks of this wisdom as something her mother could have potentially said to her but did not. She also realizes that not many mother's ever say that to their daughters. And that not saying it is an attempt to protect them.
As a child I could not have been told this, and I don't really remember my mother trying. What I do remember though was that all through out life she shown by example the joy in sitting by the trees and tasting all the apples.
I don't think you can tell children (or anyone) about life, you have to show them. I also don't think you can protect them. Life is a side effect of living, and it happens to us all. If you are alive, and happy, thank your parents. Not for telling you what the world is and protecting you from it, but for showing you what the world is and giving you the skills and knowledge to survive in it.
Thanks.
I was just thinking about that, having just finished that book on my afternoon break. And earlier I'd been thinking about how to tell when things are going your way. I was thinking that while looking out the door at work, which is the view in the photo on the top of this page. It was a basically a rhetorical thought, because things were going my way. They had to be, how else could I find the parking lot so beautiful. I guess it's all in how you look at it.
2 comments:
I love this blog! I wish you would write a book. I would read it. And then re-read. And tell people to read it but not let them borrow my copy because I might want to read it some during the time they were reading it.
You make me shed tears of sorrow, happiness, longing, and pride all at the same time. You have an incredible gift for looking at things from such a unique perspective. I agree with adrienne...and we will wait for it! P.S. I am still crying
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