Lucky Life
Celebrating Being Here
Last week, I lamented, and it felt rough for awhile, carrying those thoughts. But part of the process of lament is to let go. So as to not create my own whiplash experience, jolting from lament to enjoyment, to magic, to celebration, I had to pause and take stock.
I waited for a turn in the weather, for the buds outside my window to spring into bloom. I made myself foamy lattes and wondered if I would be stuck holding hurt. I should know by now — we’re never permanently stuck. The world keeps turning. It is the nature of life to move on.
In an attempt to plow through my overdue library pile, I picked up the thinnest book, poet Ada Limón’s Against Breaking: On the Power of Poetry. I had grabbed it off the shelf because I liked the title, because it was short, because I like poetry. And right away, it provided the turn I needed.
On the essay’s second page, Limón quotes poet Lucille Clifton:
“Won’t you celebrate with me/ what I have shaped into / a kind of life?”
Life, as we each shape ours from the raw materials of springtime and pain, warm drinks and routine, is worth celebrating. Let’s celebrate it!
This week, my husband came home with a film recommendation, one that had just passed through a group of friends, one I planned to pass on. It’s a documentary - never my first choice - about birdwatching. But Listers: A Glimpse into Extreme Birdwatching (free on YouTube) compelled me unexpectedly. Follow a couple of stoners as they decide to participate in a Birding Big Year competition (who knew?) and what you get is some remarkable wildlife footage, an appreciation of the biodiversity, beauty, and frequent outlandishness of bird life. It was weird and celebratory, and ended with a quote that’s stayed with me:
…out there in the real world, paying attention, hopeful and awake…any day could be a special day, and probably will be, if we just go out to look. Kenn Kaufman, Kingbird Highway
That’s the magic I can’t get enough of - the potential celebration of the here and now; the realization that I’m in it, gifted with it, just because. Ada Limón says the acts of writing and creating are that - acts of paying attention, of inhabiting the world, of connecting, or containing. It’s a lucky life.
On the days that you are apt to forget your luck or find yourself stuck in the doldrums of hard times-hard people, it’s a wonder to know that making something - a picture, a story, a knitted hat, a quilted square, a garden, a gizmo, a baby, whatever - is a gift.
It’s life.
It’s our great good fortune to connect to one another.
“If we are lucky enough to live a life in poetry, we are never alone - we are never alone because everyone who has ever written is with us.” Ada Limón
A few weeks back, I determined to start each day with a picture book. Read on for what I’ve come across so far.
It’s a celebratory part of my lucky life - I’m glad you’re in it with me !
Picture books from my April pile - some I liked; some I loved; some, I didn’t care for; Each one nevertheless slowed me down and got me thinking. What’s better that that?!
I’ve marked my 3-star faves - read on!
A Fall Day for Bear by Bonny Becker/Kady McDonald Denton
A Moose on the Caboose by Candace Spirizzi/Chantelle and Burgen Thorne
Don’t Worry Little Crab by Chris Haughton
Flo by Kyo Maclear/Jay Fleck
How to Catch a Leprechaun by Adam Wallace/Andy Elkerton
How to Catch a Unicorn by Adam Wallace/Andy Elkerton
I’m Terrified of Bath Time by Simon Rich/Tom Toro
In The Groves by Andrea Cruz Floren
***Iver and Ellsworth by Casey Robinson/Melissa Larson - a quiet, dreamy soothing story about a rooftop bear (balloon) and the caretaker who loves him.
Paper Chase by Julia Donaldson/Victoria Sandoy
**+Penguinaut by Marcie Colleen/Emma Yarlett - a winner on concept and title, with great illustrations of a penguin’s big dreams and supportive friendships.
Pet Dad by Elanna Allen
Ruby Rene Had So Much To Say by Ashley Iman/Gladys Jose
Ruby Rene Always Gets Her Way by Ashley Iman/Gladys Jose
***Story Boat by Kyo Maclear/Rashin Kheiriyeh - this multi-layered tale is lyrical, reflective about the migrant experience and finding home, but also about imagination and building your story wherever you are.
The Fog by Kyo Maclear/Kenard Pak
The Princess and the Grain of Rice by Tina Cho/Honee Jang
***They All Saw A Cat by Brendan Wenzel - this is a clever, imaginative book about what you see from different perspective; a well-earned Caldecott Honor.
***This Moose Belongs to Me by Oliver Jeffers - quirky, funny, wry - the narrator’s moose follows all his rules, except the ones he doesn’t (most), because how can you really own what’s wild and natural?
This Pretty Planet by Tom Chapin, John Forster/Lee White
Ways to Welcome by Linda Ashman/Joey Chou
Where Three Oceans Meet by Rajanni Larocca / Archana Sreenivasan
***Winter Solstice Wish by Kate Allen Fox/Elisa Paganelli - set on a Californina beach with lovely, lyrical language, this story celebrates the shortest day of the year (which is also the longest day elsewhere) and the turn of planets and time.
***If You Went to the Bottom of the Ocean by Brooke McIntyre - with gorgeous language and layers of science, you get to imagine yourself in the deepest of the deep alongside everything else we’ve discovered there.
Uplifting post! Thank you for all the recommendations to help lift our lives up in such small ways.