Emergency Literary Pharmacy

Do books treat what ails you?

According to Jean Perdu they can and they do! This free anecdote for what our hearts need is found from the book-gem The Little Paris Bookshop  by Nina George.  

Jean’s fun prescription for his literary medicines are as follows:

“Fast-acting medicines for minds and hearts affected by minor or moderate emotional turmoil.

To be taken in easily digestible doses (between five and fifty pages) unless otherwise indicated and, if possible, with warm feet and/or with a cat on your lap.”

Enjoy a little book medicine this summer.

Visit your local bookstore, library, electronic device and/or used book seller and read for your health and wellness.

Here are three from Jean’s Literary Pharmacy list. The rest you will have to discover on your own or by reading The Little Paris Bookshop.

1. Adams, Douglas. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy; A Trilogy in Five Parts

                    Effective in large doses for treating pathological optimism or a sense of                               humor failure. Ideal for saunagoers with exhibitionist tendencies.

                    Side effects: An aversion to owning things, and a potentially chronic            tendency to wear a robe all day.

2. Hesse, Hermann. “Stages,” a poem in The Glass Bead Game, trans. Richard and Clara Winston.

Cures grief, and inspires you to trust.

3. Melville, Herman. Moby Dick; or, The Whale.

For vegetarians.

Side effects: A fear of water.

(Please support local book shops everywhere!)

 

Dad, I wish you knew how much we need you!

Egg + Sperm = new life

This equation is a biological law that does not change no matter the trend, orientation, tendency, or species.

New life requires part of a male and part of a female.

The deposit in this equation is the male’s “contribution.”  Then he’s done, usually revealed with a smile on his face…but that act makes you also responsible for new life, too.

I wish to express the importance of father’s in the lives of their children.

Of course  Mothers have huge psychological and emotional impact…

but so do fathers.

You are significant.

It is you they need to know with tenderness and kindness.

You are the other half.

It is you that influences in a way quite unique and special than mother.

Take the time to make those connections with your child.

You help create life and your actions affect how that precious life will feel love and feel whole.

There is really nothing like a wonderful, attentive father to help contribute in shaping a healthy child in this world.

You cannot be replaced in your child’s life.

 

What is your dad’s love language?

Not every father feels comfortable wrapping those big dad-arms around their child to say “I love you.” Papa’s love can’t match mama’s loving, but they are entitled to their own ways of expressing appropriate affections for their children. They have their own “father love-language.”

What is your father’s? Not your love language you want to receive from him, but think what he does to try to show love to you?

Take one of my brothers as a father, for instance. He is one of the rare dads who grabs his kids in a big bear hug and shows his affection with gusto any time he is with them. His children also are affectionate people and not afraid to hug and touch with love.

One of my other brothers, as a father shows little emotion with his children in the form of hugging or touch. But his love language is spending quality time with them having them make something with him. He expresses his love when he sets up a potters wheel with clay and tools, sets up glass rods to make beads, fires up his kilns to blow glass, or has them participate in a project which encourages time spent just with him.

My father-in-law’s fatherly love language is not hugging and kissing at all. But he expresses his love by trying to be a helper. He wants to be useful to his children and teach them self reliance. He will make sure they know how their cars get gased, oiled and tires changed. His love language is nurturing but in a fatherly sort of way.

My husbands love language is definitely sports! Thank goodness all five of our children can play most sports because it is the way their dad expresses great big love. 

 

There are so many fond memories which include sports and our family playing with their dad. From clear back taking our first two children to the driving range and even cutting down a driver so the two year old could swing and hit the golf balls with ease. Their dad taught those same two babies how to “pickle” in the front yard of our first house. The mitts were nearly half the size of their bodies but they learned how to catch and run with their dad. He continued that sports play when three more babies came.

My husband not only can play most sports well, but he also LOVES to watch sports on television. Tennis is his favorite sport to play and watch. To share all those games every single season is similar to plastering all his babies with hugs and kisses; while rooting for their favorite teams snacking on salsa and chips.

My husband coached some of our children’s sports teams over a span of 32 years, and when not coaching rooted, perhaps a little too hard while watching. He’s probably had the most warnings of any father put on him from referees; even got kicked out of games on occasion.

Our family always has a ball, a made-up game for any occasion with a ball, or will make up some type of sport which will substitute as a ball. We play catch in airports, at church functions, in hotel swimming pools, even out car windows. In fact we would be rich if we were given $10 for every ball we counted in our house right this second.

Our children always have some type of competition going with their dad whether it is throwing rocks at a floating log in a lake, kicking field goals at the high school field, a ping-pong tournament, or seeing how far they can launch a water balloon. It’s their daddy that spreads out his arms as big and wide as he can with all that love a dad can muster in that dad-hug when he is doing, watching, talking about, attending, rooting, shopping at sports type stores, or competing in any type of sport with his kids. On this very night a ping-pong tournament is planned in the late night hours…

Look at your own father and discover what he does to express his love language. Sunday June 18th is father’s day. Let him show you how much he loves you by allowing him to give love his way; in his love language. And then let him.

Happy Father’s Day to our dad and yours.

(Punching, bullying, demeaning or sarcastic speech are not love language expressions. These things are hurtful and wrong and are not appropriate actions to any human being; especially a father. Mean is never love and never a substitute for it!)

 

Completely gone…

Pretty cool, huh?

(continued from previous post)

Enchanted Phenomenon in the East

 Look closely

 something magical is happening…

The fairy babies have been released and they are everywhere!

Everywhere!

Waiting for their papas and mamas to come for them…

Do you believe in fairy babies?

Look close…

When the first baby laughed for the first time,

the laugh  broke into a thousand pieces,

and they all went skipping about,

and that was the beginning of fairies.  

J. M. Barrrie (1860-1937)

I love number Five

Five is my favorite number.

I was born on a number five.

I have five treasures as my children.

In August I will have five grandchildren.

And my first grandchild turned five yesterday.

I love my number five!

This post is to honor my Trevor James.

A jewel was born in our family five years ago. He was the most beautiful baby; so quiet and content.  But we soon discovered that he was not reaching milestones that were “typical.” As he grew we noticed he separated himself in his mind and voice from our world and his actions often seemed like he was an island, but he is not. He actually longs for us to join him. He has unique gifts. He is a professional spinner and is a marvel.

 

He communicates through energy or actions but not with words. His spirit is powerful and strong even though it sits inside a frail little body. God made him exactly right for a purpose. I believe he is a spiritual icon; a sort of earth angel, which gives a message to us as offered to either tap into or pass by. Many rush past or ignore. It takes an effort to be with him but the time is a gift. When I am with him I feel at home from a place deep inside. When I am away, I miss him and the spiritual energy that flows from him that seems to quench a thirst that I can’t get filled anywhere else. I have learned a great deal over the past five years from this little boy. He makes me better.  Life gives us wonderful surprises and I never realized how rich learning and growing with an autist could be.

Happy Birthday Trev Man.

Grammy is  your best buddy forever!

I know you know I love  you and that you love me back…

 

A letter to you

Dear wanderer and seeker,

Let’s take a journey together of words.

Where shall we begin?

Coming with me is booking a ticket into a new life, new land, new mystery, new time…

I am your guide and

will thrill you,

terrify you,

and wrap my arms around you for comfort…

Me, unopened is dead.

Me opened is discovery and enchantment.

Let’s take a journey together of words.

I am waiting for you.

                       Jump in,

                       Your Book