Beating the winter blahs
Idea #1 for beating those winter blahs:
Read a great book that takes place somewhere
warm and
exotic. My brother Matt gave me this beautiful vintage edition of Out of Africa for Christmas this year
(Modern Library edition 1952. It even came with an old folded up portrait of Isak Dinesen from a 1950s magazine tucked in the back pages) and it has helped me breeze through January as I gobble up morsels of vicarious sun and beautiful words every night before bed.
{Thank you, Matt. Such a thoughtful gift.}
I loved this passage about an orphaned pet antelope they have on the farm. It could easily be speaking to me, or you, or one of my children:
"Oh, Lulu," I thought, "I know that you are marvellously strong and that you can leap higher than your own height. You are furious with us now, you wish that we were all dead, and indeed we should be so if you could be bothered to kill us [ well, maybe not that killing part...]. But the trouble is not as you think now, that we have put up obstacles too high for you to jump, and how could we possibly do that, you great leaper? It is that we have put up no obstacles at all. The great strength is in you, Lulu, and the obstacles are within you as well, and the thing is, that the fullness of time has not yet come." (p. 72)Have a great weekend, you great leapers. G and I are off to the Andrew Bird concert at the Orpheum tonight. So so excited.