2007

On Friday evening we went to town and watched the movie, then waited in community for our copy of the book. On Saturday morning I continued to re-read the sixth book while my youngest son continued with the seventh and last book that he had begun the night before. It would have made a funny, silent movie to have filmed us in all the many places we draped and curled ourselves to read and read the whole day long….tho’ the porch sofa was the spot I returned to most often. And of course, we had to have reading-meals because we couldn’t talk to each other for fear of letting something slip. Still the day was full of cosiness and shared smiles over the edges of our books.

…and wonder at the thought of so many people across the world reading along with us. I came quite late to knowing Harry Potter. I thought I wouldn’t enjoy it, not being much of a fantasy reader. But I was convinced last winter by my children’s pleasure in the books to give the first one a try. I spent a delightful few wintery weeks reading the first six books-one after the other. It was a rich, savoring feeling knowing that I had another book just waiting for me when each one was finished. And how neat it was to be able to ask my sons so many questions that came to me while I read and have them tell me their thoughts and insights.

On this stay-at-home Sunday, I gave the sixth book that I had finished to my husband (who had yet to read it!) and my son gave the last book to me. This time, my husband and I would have made a funny, sped-up film as we read together …sometimes toes touching in chaise lounges facing each other, or side-by-side on a quilt in the woods, or on the porch. My youngest son appeared now and then, especially for the reading meals and we even talked on the phone with eldest son who is traveling across country and had acquired and finished the book already….and still none of the story had been revealed….just an excitement shared…to be partaking in it together.

I made the living room inviting with fluffed-up pillows and lit candles and prepared to read long into the night to finish the book….but I got sleepy and went to bed with it only half-finished. This morning and afternoon I did all that I should, including filling orders for several hours. I did read a chapter during lunch and have been reading steadily (on the porch sofa again) all the evening.

So, our interlude is nearly over. I have two hundred pages
left to read. I just got off the phone with eldest son and we

were oohing and aahing over the depth of feelings expressed in the book….how bright the happiness, how dark the despair….It brims over with goodness…and its opposite. And the struggles in the book, the losses, have even helped me with my own-as I get used to the world without my father in it. Look at the quote I discovered on the first page:

“Death is but crossing the world, as friends do the seas; they live in one another still.” -William Penn

This has been said before, but he said it so simply and beautifully. And I am so grateful to have this…and so much more from these good, good books.

Tomorrow will see me back to everyday life and the wonder of this story will be past its first bloom for me. But its message of love will color my days, I hope.

Now it is time to put the kettle on and light a few candles
and kiss my family good night and settle in for a last few hours of enchantment.

In the past few weeks, many things in my life have finished-as much as anything is ever truly “finished”. Our home studies are over for the summer, I had my last good visit with my father before his illness really took him over, my shows are over and orders filled, and we graduated my eldest from our homeschool with a lovely gathering of friends and family.

It was a busy few days in between wrapping up studies and evaluations on Tuesday and the party Friday evening. Fortunately, I had ordered pretty lanterns and chopsticks and bamboo plates on the web the week before and had only to shop for the food and drink….and the sushi rolling mats. That was accomplished on Wednesday with a trip to the city. On Thursday, we cleaned house and hung paper lanterns and I made slipcovers for our decrepit dining chairs. I have been longing to make these since I bought three tablecloths on sale at Williams -Sonoma last summer. One tablecloth made the three covers I needed and what a change from the paint-spattered, unraveling seated old chairs! In the evening I made the diploma and wrapped the basket full of Japanese-themed presents for my nearly-grown boy. Friday was filled with the preparing of food, including the making of sushi for the first time ever. My son and I made it together (vegetarian, so no worries about feeding raw fish to our guests), and were surprised at how deliciously and prettily it turned out.

The party was warm and vibrant and the little graduation ceremony was simple and memorable. Looking back, I realize that-as ever-a little ritual….some light and music and food….dear people….a pausing to acknowledge…..as well as bringing great pleasure and lovely memories, have helped me to absorb the “largeness” of where I have arrived in my life as a mother.

A few days later, we saw eldest, graduated son off at the airport and that brings me to these past few days. I have spent these days in a sort-of-funk. We celebrated the Fourth and I am enjoying watching Wimbledon as I do each early Summer….but between and around everything else has been a hazy uncertainty about what to do next. My creativity, my mothering, my business, my way of being in the world seem to be in transition….and for now, I don’t have the answers about what it all will become. I have been having the most interesting dreams, with houses and new rooms discovered within them, and houses my husband has decorated with musical instruments and vacuum cleaners (?) and other houses. I know that houses in dreams are thought to symbolize the self, and my recent dreams are giving me interesting things to ponder.

So while my mind seems to be pausing, trying to catch up to where my heart and spirit are leading, it may be even quieter than usual around here….I suppose that is why it has been so quiet for awhile now. I am truly looking forward to feeling passion and direction again and hope it will arrive soon. I am on the watch for it. And that makes me think of Jo, in Little Women when she and her sisters and Laurie are talking about their “castles in the air” and Jo says “I want to do something splendid before I go into my castle, something heroic or wonderful that won’t be forgotten after I’m dead. I don’t know what, but I’m on the watch for it, and mean to astonish you all some day.” I don’t know how I feel about the “astonishing” nor do I feel the need to do things that will be remembered “after I’m dead”…..but her wish is close to mine.