Lazy days

Day 8

Today I am being a cultured individual (which fits nicely with My New Life), but is another way of saying that today I am pootling about, doing nice things. We should all have days like this - they are life-affirming. So already I have visited four art galleys with my friend Diane. She and I have just finished the same art course and are now adrift, trying to find a way to progress our work, and make it something that provides an income. I am putting that off for a while in favour of finishing my kid's book, which I'd already put off to do the art course (are we noticing a pattern here?).

Tonight I am joining a book club for the first time. I feel that this makes me a modern, renaissance woman and am looking forward to an evening of intelligent dissection and female sisterhood. If it turns into a drunken riot of gossip and giggling, so much the better. This would be post-modern, obviously.

The book we are discussing is 'The elegance of the hedgehog' by Muriel Barbery, and I loved every word of it. I find words, in and of themselves, such a joy. Words like Ephemera, Plasticity, Crumpet and Herbacaeous are quite fabulous. I'm more inclined to Weep than to Cry, to Saunter than to Walk, or to Desire than Want. The particularly lovely thing about this book is that is has been written beautifully, twice! Once in the original French, then again as a work in it's own right as the translation. Hats off to you, Alison Anderson, for keeping the poetry of the prose as important as the weaving of the story.

In My New Life, I will find more books that move me as much as this did, which I will read aloud to my family, as I once used to do. Reading can be such a solitary activity, but I find if something really resonnates for me, I always want to share it. When I read Terry Pratchett, I spend half the time giggling hysterically on the sofa, and the other half chasing people around the house saying "listen to this bit, it's brilliant...". When one shares ones joys in life, we are really sharing ourselves, allowing others to know us, to see into our hearts, to know what moves us, ignites us, inspires us. I love this - in My New Life, I resolve to share more.