Category Archives: books

on being a pilgrim…


I became fascinated with pilgrimage journeys about six years ago when I took a Humanities class about journey narratives. I began to view my own life as a journey, and this worldview helped me to make sense of my mortality.

I started reading all types of journey narratives, from Road from Coorainto Mutant Message Down Underto The Pilgrimage. I re-read classics like The Odysseyand Gilgamesh.

From all of this reading and soul-searching I realized that the pilgrim motif resonated with me. By seeing life as a journey I could more fully live each day as part of that process. It made me less afraid to take steps towards my goals. It made me believe that I could achieve something heroic.

One of the very hardest parts of my life were those days during my cancer treatments that I couldn’t even take a step by myself (or I couldn’t even push myself in a wheelchair anywhere either). More than anything I feared the loss of mobility, of progression, of autonomy, of freedom. Perhaps that is why I now feel so happy to be walking on my ‘own two feet’ and to be making progress in my daily journey.

The little twist of irony in my blogname is that John has since begun his own pilgrimage (I guess that makes him ‘pilgrimboy’ or ‘Mr. Pilgrimgirl’). What’s cool about this is that we are fellow travelers now. We’ve both taken up the staff of the pilgrim and are charting our course through the terrain of each day together.

Make me smile…

–turning in grades yesterday. whew. another quarter of school all done. ate 2 do-si-dos and did some high-fives with the kiddoes to celebrate.

–a blank page on my calendar today. still lots of stuff to do, but no classes, no appts, no meetings. woohoo!

–crocheting. about 10 years ago my friend Mindy taught me how to crochet and since then I’ve made many crocheted items, but I’ve never learned how to read & follow a pattern. Thanks to the Happy Hooker I’m about halfway through my first follow-a-pattern project.

–the sun is shining today, small birds are twittering on my front porch, I’m sipping hot tea w/milk, and the day stretches ahead of me with all of the joy and promise of a grassy field filled with wildflowers.
🙂

name games

I don’t care much for fantasy novels. Perhaps one reason why is that the names are all so goofy-sounding. As an example, in one of my kids’ fantasy books (titled, appropriately, The Naming), here are a few of the names that I found in thumbing through the pages for about 15 seconds:
Maerad
Cadvan
Farndar
Valverras
Dernhil of Gent
Likud
Ceredin
Enkir
Nelac
Owan
Gast

So here are the fantasy names that I’ve made up myself in a little more than 15 seconds:
Veedubvan
Fahrder
Dunghyl of Baedcent
Garghill Anspyt
Verraslaepe
Shelac
Cankir
Claen de Ovan
Emerod
Gast (that last one works for me, too)

Ok, for those of you who are having an I’d rather-be-blogging-than-doing-my-job Friday, why don’t you join in the fun and see what you can come up with….

reading

City of Beasts
Kingdom of the Golden Dragon
by Isabel Allende

These novels are adventure stories, with a few fantastical elements thrown in. Mostly the magical elements are the result of mystical experiences that the main characters (Alexander–a teen boy from California, and Nadia–a teen girl raised in the jungles of South America by her scientist father) have with nature. For example, each teen connects with a totemic creature to draw strength during difficult times. Each of them also connects with indigenous peoples and learns ancient lore that gives them healing skills, or the power to accomplish almost super-human tasks.

What I liked best about these books is that they have inspiring protagonists, particularly Nadia who is as savvy as ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer,’ but also retains a tender love for family and animals. In addition, the exotic locations of these adventures teach readers about the geography, flora & fauna, and religious beliefs of other cultures.

These novels are probably too short and too simplistic to satisfy most adult tastes. But they are great for young people–I’d recommend them for grade 4+.

A book meme (three)

From Shelly’s Bookshelf:

Name your 3 favorite children’s series.

Trixie Belden
 by Kathryn Kenney
These were my favorites when I was a kid. Though a close runner-up would be the Boxcar Children. Oddly, I don’t think my kids have read any Trixie Belden books. They don’t carry them in any of the bookstores that we frequent.

Emily of New Moon
by L.M. Montgomery
IMO, much better than Anne of Green Gables. Besides that, Emily is an aspiring writer and has cats. ‘Nuff said 🙂

It seems to me that there were far fewer “series” of books when I was a kid. There weren’t Babysitters Club, or Goosebumps, or Animal Ark like there are today. Not to mention no Harry Potter or Eragon, etc. Nowadays it’s almost a given that books are serialized. Must be a good sales tactic…

Name your 3 favorite non-series children’s books.

Bargain Bride
 by Evelyn Sibley Lampman

Strawberry Girl
by Lois Lenski

Roller Skates
 by Ruth Sawyer

Name 3 favorite children’s book characters.
Jo (Little Women)
Like Jo, I was so sure I would grow up and marry an eccentric German professor and write novels..
Harriet (Harriet the Spy)
Harriet is so sneaky cool! I wanted to go up and down the neighbors dumbwaiters just like her!
Meg Murry (A Wrinkle in Time)
Meg and her family were my heroes. I wanted to be a scientist like her mother–cooking dinner on a bunsen burner in my “lab,” and have eccentric kids and adventures, etc. I was pretty sure that I would grow up and have a big dog named Fortinbras.

I’m not going to tag anyone with this meme (I don’t want to annoy people with continual tags), but I’d love to hear any of your responses to these questions–put a response or a link in the comments. 🙂

books…


Wow, this is a amazing. Books are cool not only for what’s on the inside, but also for themselves 🙂

I found these pictures at booklust. A new favorite book blog. Enjoy!

As a few of you may have heard, I’ve had a nasty 24 hour stomach flu for the past 24 hours. I’m just now starting to eat w/o nausea and I’m craving the oddest things: sunchips, chocolate frozen yogurt and sour candy straws. Weird, eh?

Thanks go to John and the kids for nursing me through the awfulness of this flu…

autist

My brother David posted this test for autism on his blog. I’m a 22, which means that I’m on the upper end of normal for a female. Curious.

My results may have been skewed by the fact that I just finished reading a book with an autistic protagonist. Elizabeth Moon’s _The Speed of Dark_ is a fabulous tale about an adult autist who is faced with the choice of whether to take a treatment to cure his condition or remain as he is. I picked up the book because I like thinking about the way that disability affects personal identity. In my own situation, I know that my disability is not the core of who I am, yet it is such a big part of me that I can’t really imagine life without it. And I’m not sure I would want to. Though I would like to run, jump and frolic like a 2-legged person, I like that having just one leg makes me unique. And that this uniqueness is something that draws people to me. Would I really want to give this up?

I suspect that with increasing advancements in medical technology, I may have to make this choice someday. While, at times, I crave being a bi-ped again, at other times I wonder if I’m too comfortable as I am.

riding the rails


Our family took our train trip to Northern Cali yesterday. Unlike what John B said, the train did not dump us out in the middle of nowhere or derail anywhere along the way. The view along the coast was absolutely stunning. I highly recommend it. I listened to Stephen Ambrose’s Nothing Like it in the World (about the development of the RRs in the West) as we rode along. The perfect accompaniment to a train trip!…