Welcome to week 7 of The Joy Diet. This week aside from all the others has brought the most clarity. After reading the chapter and discovering what I play at best was an unveiling for me. After Martha walked us through our darkest moments and using 9/11 as an example, I've been able to see what I've embraced as important, that being my family and our love of books in all of it's capacities.
It was so surprising for me this week to have these very vivid memories coming back. For what reason I do not know other than, perhaps I've cleared out enough space to let them surface. In doing so I've had a realization that is so strong,fun, and inspiring that I just have to come out and play.
As I hold my family in my mind, my whole family in my mind, I remember long lost childhood days when I would play library, be a writer, and publish my own and my friends written treasures. Both of my grandmothers would not come to visit without bringing me a book. I immediately would catalog it into my personal library .....in a 7 year old sort of way. When I wasn't playing librarian I was writing and then I loved to make pretty little books and put them in our family library. My children have done that too and it's just so great to have these little memories of who they were at that moment. It's so fun to go back and look through them.
(Books from my grandmothers)
(the above photos are of my sons books when he was 4 years old.)
Where did this week's road take me? You really can't imagine.
When I asked myself what I wanted to leave behind in this life the answer came out.....published books. Not as in my own published books but other peoples. Could this be right? I've never thought of myself in this light but when I allowed the thinking to unfold, it became very clear that this had been underlying for a very long time. The universe gave some very clear affirmations as well when I went to a used book sale and there were two books on how to publish books. I also called a couple of independent publisher friends and ran these ideas past them and they both said "Totally. It's so you, it's so totally you." With this said, they also departed much advice in the way of what to watch out for. There is much to learn and the joy of new adventures.
This led me to my next memory of my mother. When she was dying of cancer 10 years ago and had entered hospice, I was going to take her books back to the library. She told me that she felt sad about that because she wouldn't know how the book would end. So I sat down and read her the rest of the book. She fell asleep afterwords and when she woke up she told me that she was leaving me a little bit of a nest egg, nothing much....."just invest it and save it for the day when you know what you want to be when you grow up. Don't spend it on anything practical." So I believe this day has arrived. It's a beginning of a journey that has been waiting to unfold. The first step has been taken..........Where is "play" taking you?
