On, In, and Around Mondays: Sharing the Mystery
I made a start, but I always seem to falter when it comes to fiction. She knows this about me.
"Did you ever finish?" she asked.
"I'm on chapter two."
"I can read it to you," she said.
And so she did, this weekend. On my bed. In the kitchen. On the deck at her grandparents' home.
Sometimes I would catch myself daydreaming. About work or bills. About taxes or my poets. Her voice never faltered. She laughed, sighed, caught my eye, touched my hand. Sometimes she turned to the back of the book or to the footnotes. "Chopin never wrote anything for solo violin, isn't that funny? I love these notes!"
Then she told me this is why Doyle didn't like the Holmes stories. They were inaccurate, unlike his other works which he spent far more time researching. But no one liked the other works much. Who cared about accuracy, when the Holmes stories were better?
I type these words and I suddenly wonder, "Was it taxes I daydreamed about, while my dark-haired girl shared her beloved Holmes with me? Or am I making that up? Did she really touch my hand? Or was it my arm? When we remember, we alter memories. We cannot know for sure what happened. Only approximations.
But I remember this, surely. Very surely. She took the time to read to me. I listened, I watched, and... we loved.
---
On, In and Around Mondays (which partly means you can post any day and still add a link) is an invitation to write from where you are. Tell us what is on, in, around (over, under, near, by...) you. Feel free to write any which way... compose a tight poem or just ramble for a few paragraphs. But we should feel a sense of place. Would you like to try? Write something 'in place' and add your link below.
If you could kindly link back here when you post, it will create a central meeting place. :)
This post is also shared with Laura Boggess, for...
Labels: family stories, On in and Around Mondays
posted by L.L. Barkat at 11:05 AM
12 Comments:
what a precious daughter you have ...
Although my kids don't read my stuff very often, I know they're my biggest fans. And that means more than any outside kudos I might receive. My kids are the people I yell at to LEAVE ME ALONE when I'm writing, and yet they still support me. Wild!
Saturday night, we watched a movie entitled "Dr. Bell and Mr. Doyle," a not-totally-fictional account of how Doyle created Sherlock Holmes. A little gruesome in parts, but a good flick -- and a reminder (with your post today) of how much I like Sherlock Holmes.
And it's time to reread him. Without the daydreams.
That's beautiful. And you're so right about memory! My son claims to remember things he couldn't possibly remember--because he sees them on home videos!
My kids don't read what I write.They never have. But I wonder, one day when i'm gone, if they'll do a google search and see that my life was more than they imagined.
This is another sweet one. My boys like to tell me stories, but they rarely read to me anymore. Such a special thing--to share a book with a loved one. I have watched their love affair with reading grow and change and now it is theirs...this intimate thing. That's not too shabby, i guess. I will be happy with this for now. :)
Your daughter sounds like a gem. :)
Just so very sweet...
Reading: A Shadorma
a story
she had time to tell
you, mother,
listening
matters not should voice fall still
love in time it builds
Sometimes it's very hard to get our minds off ourselves, our own lists and important considerations, isn't it? I think it's okay for our head to be running in the background when others need our attention; however, it's good to try to "be present" for them in a very real and attentive way. To listen to others, as we would want others to listen to us.
How great a mystery that your daughter, who is well able to read by herself, and the story would go faster for her if she kept it in her own head, wants a mother to share her love-affair with! And how touched you must be to be such a gift-receiver and sharer in another's life.
So beautiful.
it's good to be loved by the ones that know us.
and nice to be read to.
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