Fill-in-the-blank
To define a good book: A treasure for the soul. A golden nugget that glistens with every page. A shimmering aspen leaf that catches your eye. A highway to the heart. A spiritual retreat. A deep breath of fresh air.
Do you ever feel like you can clutch a book and never let it go? Tuck it into the back of your pants and hope that it rubs off on you no matter what? Eat with it, sleep with it under your pillow, or put it into a plastic bag and bring it into the shower?
The words written in a book can sing to your soul…when you’re ready. Words spoken and put into a shape can open a wound that needs to be healed. They can paint a picture that moves you to tears.
Words can speak to your heart, as if a hand reaches in and coddles it.
I was handed a book yesterday from a friend. Shshshsh…listen. I’m beginning to trust being lead without a self-agenda. To think of myself as a sponge that absorbs, yet gently squeezes out the excess. The book fills in some of life’s blank spaces. Like in a game of Scrabble, a blank tile resembles freedom, choice and flexibility. I grew up playing tons of Scrabble with my mom and dad, so when I got a blank tile the possibilities were endless. It was a chance to reach into the “word bank” of my brain and pull out a really powerful one. And the blank tile was whatever it was supposed to be…
That blank tile is like life. It’s awaiting to be etched and transformed into one lovely word, or thought, or moment.
As I walk around with my arms wrapped around “the book”, I realize I’m grateful: For the person who gave it to me, for the “aha moment”, and for the densely touching words. But most of all, I’m grateful that is has a profound effect on my life and how I see it.
As my mom says “I’m given everything I need exactly when I need it.”
Not when I think I need it, but when it’s time for me to be ready to receive it. Two totally different places and a different reaction.
There are many more “blanks” in life that I need to fill, but I know that I’ll be given the words, tools and insight to allow me create a lifelong string of words…like strands of pearls.
January 14th, 2010 at 9:23 pm
I love your analogy (or is it metaphor?) to the blank scrabble tile. Your site is beautiful. Hope we get to catch up someday-isn’t life crazy-good but crazy.
Jessica Regele
January 14th, 2010 at 10:36 pm
Thanks, Jessica. It’s just a place to spill my somewhat organized thoughts. I love your site as well. Let’s catch up soon…I need to sit ‘under the pergola’ and laugh. Miss you guys tons.
January 18th, 2010 at 8:28 pm
Looks like all those scrabble letters are now making wondrous words…even the ones that had been thrown in the dirt and sand by an angry game loser. Keep digging…forever MOM
January 18th, 2010 at 8:55 pm
So true, Mom. Thanks for all the time spent teaching me the words and playing with me
We’ve always had Scrabble and we always will. Love ya.