Good Morning,
I have not been reading quite as much as usual. Have you? Last night I decided to start a mystery novel and that has helped. It is a carry me away kind of book. I chose an Anne Cleeves novel with the Vera, the inspector. I find all that grimness a weird bit of comfort. It makes me think back to a book club that I was a member of in my thirties. At that time I had never read a mystery novel.
In fact I was a bit snobby about them. I liked, what I felt at the time, were more "literary" books. I think then I cared more what people thought of my reading taste. In that club, one member picked a mystery and I duly read it. I dubbed her choice as "less than" but felt it was right everyone got a turn to choose a book. Oh what a little snot I was.
I don't remember what the book was, or even really liking it but it opened my mind to a whole new genre. It lead me to Ian Rankin and Henning Mankell; to falling a little in love with difficult characters like Rebus and Wallander. It lead me to see that being narrow minded about my reading choices really did not serve me well.
A few years later Jennifer Manuel of Fish Eye Sisters told me about this writer she loved. Her name was Louise Penny. I got one from the library but I just didn't get Inspector Gamache. I told Jenn and she said she loved him. Well I thought Jenn was lovely. I trusted her reading mind. So a few years later I tried again, and now I love Louise Penny, respect Gamache and buy every new book in hardcover.
Finding something new is like that. It's like tasting asparagus for the first time when you were a kid, or spinach, or broccoli. At first you might not like it all. You might think you never ever ever will but something in you changes. You mature. You meet a nice person who loves asparagus. You change. You open up a bit.
Possibilities. What don't I know that I like? Oh goodness I love that question. It makes me so curious. Like is there a new flavour about to descend on us. My husband is of Lebanese descent so we have being eating zaatar for years. It is a mixture of thyme and sumac mixed with olive oil and spread on dough and baked. It is comfort food. Lately I see it everywhere. A few weeks ago I saw a zaatar salad dressing in the grocery store. I thought , imagine if I was just discovering this now, how great would that be?
Open. What do I miss when I don't stay open? All kinds of things probably. And it isn't all that easy sometimes. I feel like I have watched, seen, read, and eaten a lot. New ideas are not always easy to come by.
I am taking an online course and one thing the instructor says is so what if you heard it all before, listen, you might find something new here. And I do. I find new things sometimes in the old. I find there are new things tagged onto the things I have heard before. I also find that rethinking an old idea brings me to new places. And just finding that out is worth the whole course. My friend Carol Oram says, if you get one new idea in a whole book, that's a really good deal for $20 or $30 bucks. I love Carol cause she says stuff like that. Smart stuff.
Listening. Oh that's the key. Listening to wisdom around you. Listening to the good stuff. Normally I read aloud my newsletter to my husband before I send it out but I think I'll skip this one. He might guffaw. No he is not a "guffaw" type but he would have plenty to say about me and listening.
Listening. That is what I need to do more of. He'd like this part. But I am not going there with him. I will just try to quietly practice not walking out of the room when he is in mid sentence. Not asking "What?" when I have really heard what he said. Do you do that? My mind wanders. It thinks about blue wool when I am cooking supper. It thinks about macaroni when I am dying blue wool. It thinks about the shape of broccoli leaves when I am writing a newsletter. Like how cute and curly they are.
But back to listening. I want to listen more and I want to listen better. Now is a really good time for listening. There is a quietude that surrounds us. A quietude that is within many of us right now.
As I hook this week I plan to listen.
Listen to sounds of the birds in the morning.
Listen to my husbands laugh.
Listen to my heart.
Now it is more important than ever...to listen and to
Create beauty everyday.
Thank you...
Deanne
Next Facebook Live Thursday, April 9th at 2pm Atlantic Time!
I'm gonna be there! Hope to see you there too!
PS. We are still shipping everyday. Each day one of us works in the studio alone to prepare your orders. I am answering the phones from home so they can fill the orders.
We are open for shipping
1-800-328-7756
