Books Blood Life and Love

When We Were Very Young Now We Are Six by A. A. Milne is one my favorite books. My Mom bought it for me when I was four and I loved it. She read to me all the time. Things like Richard Scarry, poetry books, & books about animals.
According to my parents, I have always asked a lot of questions, about everything, and was always kind of weird. Thankfully they embraced me and let me believe I was normal. We moved back to the States before my 7th birthday. School was very different here than it was in my British Kindergarten and 1st year classrooms. The kids quickly let me know that I was “different”. Frustrated by my questions, my teacher angrily told me that she did not understand anything that I was saying (due to my very strong British accent) and voiced to the class that she didn’t know why they put me in HER class. She wished they hadn’t. She asked rhetorically that I please not speak to her at all, and to actually just not say anything at all, to anyone. After a bit of torture and an introduction to bulling first grade style, I headed back to kindergarten.

At home, I would ask my Mom about topics that I was interested in. If she didn’t know, we looked it up. She taught me how to use the encyclopedia and how to research. We had an extensive collection. I remember being fascinated with The Portuguese man of war, the Ankh, The Eye of Ra and The Eye of Horus. Some days, we did this in the mornings. When we finished the lesson, she would tell me “now, you can go to school” and we’d laugh.

On a visit from Chicago, my Aunt noticed my interest in research and reading encyclopedias. She later sent me a very nice, large, information packed, children’s World Book. In the first page of this hard back book was a hand written letter directly to the blank page. She is a gifted writer and I was elated. This gift was everything to me.

Hand written messages in books are still very special to me. Somehow, seeing the message gives me peace in the fact that, one day, we won’t be here. I find letters in books gifted to me from my Grandma Lula dated 86, 87, 88, the first years of my life. It makes me feel very connected to her even though she has passed.

My love for words, writing, reading, poetry, and books has probably always been a part of me. Coming from a family of writers, I believe that it is in my blood.

So this week, I’m sharing the love by sending books to a few people in my life AND by continuing to share my stories and thoughts to the blog for whoever is reading this. Feel free to do the same.