50 FB friends, 50 books, to be read during her 50th birthday year!

"If one cannot enjoy reading a book over and over again, there is no use reading it at all".  - Oscar Wilde


My friend Lee is on a journey that many of us will take.  This June she turned 50!  (This author turns 50 next year)   To celebrate she asked that her Facebook "friends" send her a copy of her favorite book to read before she turns 51!


How do you get started with this..  Well here is the e-mail that was sent to me with the very brilliant story...!


Hi,
Two Saturdays ago, I was sitting at a Restaurant in Our Town, CA with dear Lily, book-crazy-recently-turned-12-year-old daughter, over waffles and eggs benedict. This wasn't just any breakfast out, mind you. For her 6th grade Knighting Deed (a rite of passage in Waldorf circles), she had committed to eating only local and fair trade. She did this for FOUR weeks. She is so proud of herself, and so are we. 

So this breakfast was a celebration of her completed deed, and a chance to eat white flour from God knows where and Maple syrup tapped in the far reaches of Vermont. 

While we waited for our food to arrive, I asked Lily, "If you were turning 50, how would you celebrate?" 
Her idea was ABSOLUTELY spot on. "You should ask 50 of your best friends to send you their favorite book." 
A perfect plan, and fortunately I do have 50 best friends, or at least 50 (there are many more, in fact) wonderful people in my life. 

And you see, I'm not much of a party girl (that card was punched to shreds long, long ago). Otherwise, my husband would be scrambling to plan a surprise party for (and no, that is NOT a hint) 
But what I do love are books and people. 

So since you are reading this, my dear friend, If you're so inclined to help me mark my 50th year on the planet snail mail me your favorite book, or you multiple faves a book that you just really love. Inscribe it and tell me why. (Note: this is not possible with ebooks, so printed matter only!) 

USED copies welcome! 
My address is included. And you can send me your book anytime during the month of June! 
If you're local, please don't hand-deliver the book. Half the fun will be getting this gift in the mail. 
Thank you for being a part of my increasingly wonderful and ever-challenging life. 

Much love,
Lee

Well, I feel we can blame some of it on Ray Bradbury.  Mr. Bradbury died on June 5th of this year.

Lee  posted on her Facebook page that "I must confess, I have not read Bradbury but think I might, now.."  and then I knew that Lee and I were "greater" friends that time has allowed us to be.  We both are avid book lovers and she needed to know about "Fahrenheit 451", "The sound of thunder" and "the Martian chronicles", not forgetting "Something Wicked This Way Comes".   

Since her request for the gift of books, used is just fine, (thank you very much!) as sharing is double a gift when a gift of story or deed, the posts on Facebook have come pouring in and the collection is growing by leaps and bounds...  Here are a couple of posts.


Latest arrivals: 
1. The Princess Bride, William Goldman
2. Saving the Marin-Sonoma Coast, L. Martin Griffin
3. The Plague of Doves, Louise Erdrich (Who sent this???)
4. The Master Butcher's Singing Club, Louise Erdrich 
5. The Hair With the Amber Eyes: A Hidden Inheritance, Edmund DeWaal

I'm forming the most amazing, eclectic personal library in history! 


This afternoon's arrivals!!!

1. The Shack, Wm. Paul Young 
2. On the Rez, Ian Frazier 
3. The Quiet American, Graham Greene, 
4. Elegance of a Hedgehog, Muriel Barbery


Who sent Gone with the Wind? Come on, fess up.


The party continues...Yesterday's books from Jeanette and Nathaniel: Catcher in the Rye, JD Salinger, and The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne. Beautifully inscribed, too!


 Bel Canto, Ann Patchett
 Shogun, James Clavell
 Ringworld, James Niven 
 A Careless Widow, V.S. Pritchett
 Penny Vincenzi's triology (No Angel, Something Dangerous, and Into Temptation
The Love We All Wait For (thank you, dear Ellen!)

This is so freakin' fun!


1. March, Geraldine Brooks. 2. The English Patient, Michael Ondaatje. 3. The Count of Monte Cristo, Alexandre Dumas. 4. A Prayer for Owen Meany, John Irving 5. Seabiscuit, Laura Hillenbrand. And from my mom: The Secret Garden, Frances Hodges Burnett


Lee's last post was on Tuesday, "I'd better get reading...!"


I so agree, she has so much to experience as reading a book can open a whole new world or a old adventure worth living over and over again.  


So, if you are a parent, think about some serious introduction to a favorite book of your childhood.  Get the cable TV turned off for a few months and have your kid read to you while you do those dishes or read to them while they are in the bathtub!  (Hey, gotta get them while they are a captive audience!)  


If you are an empty nester or a singleton, then, what is your summer reading book?  Want to share?  I still have to send Lee my two choices.  And I think she is going to be very surprised.  Since it is summer, a little heat on the situation is perfect for her gift.  "Fahrenheit 451" is a great read about the future and the fear that the government of the future had that having the population knowledgeable and "well read" was going to topple them as the leaders.  So, like dictators in the past...they did the unthinkable, hint, (what is the temperature that paper burns?)


My next choice is "50 shades of gray".  This is a hot book for its genre.  But, since Lee has asked for a hardcopy, well, this one might not be in her mailbox till Fall!!! LOL

Happy Birthday Lee!  (Get to reading!)

"It is what you read when you don't have to that determines what you will be when you can't help it!" - Oscar Wilde


Disclaimer:  This Blog post is done in several Fonts to show the excerpts from Facebook and differentiate from my own original ideas and comments.  I know that many don't care for that style, but, it is done here with purpose and Hey! it is my blog. :0)

A bucket list...sort of.

I have to admit, the idea of a bucket list kind of creeps me out.  I don’t know why exactly.  Maybe because I prefer to think of things in terms of things I’d love to do. (Strong period there.)  Adding in the … before I die, feels a little morbid.


So, to avoid the morbid thingy, this is more of a before I turn 50 list... ya know, before I should not wear certain types of clothing or need to start wearing elastic stretchy pants, like those ladies in Wal-Mart do.  


I have two years to do all these things, so nothing is impossible, don't you think?  So many of my list items that I keep identifying are for my son, so it might be time for me to think of just me, maybe?


In a way it is a great way for me also to look back and appreciate all I have done or had the opportunity to do, as a young woman from a small New England town, I never dreamed of the things that I have done.  So, my list will not have the travel to Europe or move to California in it.  Been there, done that.  But, I think as I create this list it will be more of the wow! why have I not done that yet.


So, using the phrase before each item, I'd love to....


1.  Go on a vacation to Banff.
2.  Have a marriage as beautiful as the wedding.
3.  Be able to not worry about bills for 6 months straight.
4.  Kiss a handsome man at the Golden Gate Bridge in SF.
5.   (this one might be a stretch) be able to wear a modest bikini in public, again. (I am close, but, just need to get the abs tighter. )
6.  Own a sports car of my choosing.
7.  Support a more peaceful world, if I can, in a small way.
8.  Reduce my addiction to the Top Gear (UK) TV show and The Graham Norton Show.
9.  Buy a (RED) fingerprint Timbuk2 messenger bag for my computer/commuter work.  (Portion of the proceeds goes to the (RED) AIDS foundation.)
10.  Tell my hopes and dreams to God and not have him laugh hysterically.... ;)


I am very fortunate and some things on my list may seem small to many, but, I have traveled to Europe and Asia for business and pleasure.  I have lived in California for many years and have lived across the US for work, moving from coast to coast, every few years.
At different times I  have owned two different sports cars, driven one down a ice covered street in a large city and did doughnuts to get where I needed to go!  I have swam in three oceans and have seen the sunset in over 15 countries and the Sunrise in way too many hotel rooms on business trips.  Life has been more than I ever dreamed it could be.


My dad asked me once, do you have any great dreams for yourself left and I answered, "Yes, to love and be loved in return.  A love of respect and honor with common goals."  That one is worthy of the phrase "I'd love to".

Listen to the music and dance, even if no one can hear it.

Mungo Jerry had it right...don't ya think?  (If you don't know who Jerry was, YouTube is your friend and you are really young!)

Come on!  Summer is here.  Do you have that beach wear ready?  How does your bikini fit?  (yea, I never could wear one either...)

Can't you sush right up and touch the sky?  Don't you love the idea of lemonade in a mason jar?  Time for one of those!

Think of Harvest Moon's,  Dancing in the Moonlight...Like tonight, when the temps go down and the night is just right for a sun dress, some heels and a little night music the magic can begin.

Well, it is a marvelous night for a Moondance.  I always listen to Van Morrison and you should too!

So, as these nights come to us and call us to a little slower of a night, maybe we should enjoy the night music and have one more Moondance with the one you love.

So, why not dance?  For a while?  I think that is what I am going to do...listen to the music and dance, even if no one can hear it.

Come on, you know we have all done this..

Come on, you know we have all done this..and if not, (we need to get you out more)!

Did you drop a item today?  Did you stub your toe or put the silverware in the refrigerator instead of the drawer?  Were you angry when you dropped your keys or did you let out a little laugh at yourself for doing it?  

Laughter is the best medicine.  Ok, I stole that line.  (I steal most lines.) 

Laughter is a powerful antidote to stress, pain, and conflict. Nothing works faster or more dependably to bring your mind and body back into balance than a good laugh. Humor lightens your burdens, inspires hopes, connects you to others, and keeps you grounded and focused..  It is also so great to see that milk come rushing out of your brother's nose, when it gets a bit rowdy in the house!  Oh, just the thought has me on the brink of a giggle, but, breaks out the smiles.  

Laughter.  It can make the worst day in your life, so much better.  When we laugh I swear that, at times, the endorphins that are released are almost as good as the one done so during sex.  (I said, almost.)

When the kids are underfoot and the house a mess and all your mommy "urges" are crying out to get things neat, tidy and looking like a Architectural Digest magazine spread, "do you want to scream to the heavens?  That is the time you should look out in the yard or the playroom and watch those amazing babies that you have created and how the laughter is present in their play.  Think about it.  They laugh at the simplest things...and we should too!  

They laugh at how the duck runs or floats away from them and how it moves.  We should view the world for that moment like a child, exploring and taking the joy of the moment.  Yes, I said it again, "the joy of the moment".  

Because our lifetime is comprised of millions if not billions of those "moments".  Playing that board game with your family and laughing at the bad luck you might get at the draw of a card.  Playing charades is a perfect example of laughter extracting types of games.  Nothing can be funnier than watching those that you love imitate or try to express in any way, except direct words, what they mean to say.  Come on!  That is the ultimate comedy routine!  Robin Williams can not beat that, no way no how or even the great Milton Berle could not create a funnier routine...nope.

So, we can spend each night staring into a TV screen and watch the world go by.  Sometimes we can laugh at those moments that others are acting out, but, most likely we are lost in a TV story or report filled with sadness and despair.  Why?  Our lives are so short to begin with.  Why should we spend those moments staring into a screen.  Maybe we should enjoy the moment?  Live it with our children and/or family?

Because when you think about it...This moment is all there is.    and tomorrow it will be gone.

What do Confucious, Heraclitus and the HBO series "Game of Thrones" all have in common...why this post!

The only constant in life is change.

If you search the internet for the quote, you are given the source as everyone from a Greek philosopher (Heraclitus) from 544 BC to Issac Asimov the sci fi writer of the 20th century. Confucious and Rochefoucauld, a novelst of the 1900's, are thrown in for good measure and I understand why.  The words ring true at no matter what stage your life takes and were true from ancient times up to and including today.

Change can be brought on by situation forced upon someone or by choice.  We change everyday as we make choices to our daily life.  What to eat, how to prepare it etc.

I find myself at that crossroad with change.

My life has changed in the last 6 months.  The ties that have been a protective bond, have been released.  The bonds that restricted me from chasing a dream have been removed and I find the idea thrilling and down right scary.

I watch my child, whom is now older and ready for such changes that run through my mind carefully and mindfully that each time I make a change in our lives, it effects him greatly.  Until today, it has been a divorce, (to end the verbal abuse and the controlling behaviors that my ex was using on us)  moving several times to get closer to his school and doing what is best for him.  I doubt that he always sees these changes as positives at times and is trying very hard to work through the whys with answers that I cannot and should not give him.  I wonder if each time I use the phrase "When you are grown up, if you still need to know, then ask and I will tell you." will he really want to know when he is in his 20's.  I am hoping he has his own answers by then.

I have become a great fan of the HBO series "Game of Thrones".  Change is constant in this book series as the families wage war on each other and the blood flows from the medieval battlefields that they wage it on.  Some of the characters I wish would not change or leave...  Robb Stark.  His father was killed off.  Good for the story, bad for my heart as I fell in love with him as a great character.  Robb, I fear will come to that end as well. sigh.  But, the ever changing world that some of these characters live in, provides me with comfort as well.  That a young noble woman travelling to the north meets a assassin whom protects her and rewards her for saving him (rare in medieval times, he would have most likely just tried to escape...)  Jaqen H'ghar, is an assassin of the highest order.  Captured and was to be sent to the Wall (snow covered ice cap) to protect the country from invaders.  He instead is rescued by this young girl and rewards her with his services and his pledge to protect her.  This is the "good man" that you don't want to change in a book or movie.  The hero that I don't want to change or to be changed (killed off etc).

No matter how much I love Jaqen H'ghar (the hero), I do know that with time, as in this series/books comes change.  The constant in our lives.  Whether it is to do something that will be hard now, but, for the best later, creating change is what drives most of us.  Changing jobs, changing outfits or buying that house/car or burial plot and yes, marrying that boyfriend.

Contemplating large change is always the hardest for the creators of books/movie worlds and for us whom are just working on our own world.  Mapping out, the if this, then that, type of decisions.  

But, a journey of a thousand steps starts with but a single step. (nope, I don't know who said that, tee hee)  

But, I think I am ready for that first step.

They must often change who would be constant in happiness or wisdom. - Confucious