Ice Buckets, Gratitude, and Impactful Books

Pin It

A funny thing happened to me this week.

Well, maybe it's not all that surprising. I am pretty introverted, and even though I like to talk about myself perfectly well in some situations, it's always on my own terms.

So this week, when I was nominated in quick succession to participate in the Ice Bucket Challenge, Five Days of Gratitude, and the "list 10 books that have stayed with you in some way" game, I froze. I like all three of these things. I enjoy watching my family and friends participating in them. I would happily chat about any of them with anyone, anytime. But I could not post about them on Facebook.

I can't explain it. I just couldn't.

So I came back here to my poor, neglected blog, to talk about them my way.

The Ice Bucket Challenge

Grade two was a difficult, lonely year for me. The person who made it bearable was my school's grade five teacher, Mme. Francine LeBrun. She took me under her wing, let me avoid recess by doing little chores in her classroom, and always had time and a kind word for me. I couldn't wait to be her student.

I think it was the next year that Mme. Francine stopped teaching. She was diagnosed with a disease I had never heard of. When she came to visit at Christmas and spoke to me, I couldn't understand her. A few months later when she came to hear our choir sing, she had to write down her praise. I don't remember anymore whether she died that year or a little later, but I know it was fast, and confusing, and devastating.

My donation to ALS Canada is in honour of Mme. Francine.

Days of Gratitude

1. I am grateful for the time I spend with my boyfriend — time which, after a year of living together, is still as wonderful as when we were living five hours apart.
2. I am grateful for my close relationship with my family.
3. Speaking of family, I am grateful for my two little nieces (yes, they've multiplied since I last blogged!)
4. And speaking of babies, I'm grateful that my many, many friends and relatives who have had children in the last little while have all had safe, healthy, joyful births.
5. I am grateful for long weekends!
6. I am grateful for the financial flexibility to spontaneously go to the movies or the Ex. 
7. I'm grateful that after a frustrating dry period, I'm finding writing to be fun again. Still work, of course. But satisfying.
8. I am grateful that I work for a company that values my contribution and creates books I believe in.
9. I'm grateful to authors who have written books that entertain, move, and inspire me.
10. Ditto for poets.
11. I'm grateful that although my apartment has some problems, my landlord is very receptive to requests for dealing with them.
12. I'm grateful for the community I have found in my new neighbourhood. 
13. I am grateful for chocolate. 
14. I am grateful that as a kid I was surrounded by people who believed in me  - and who also believed in me taking responsibility for my own success or failure
15. I am grateful for all the people who, in spite of grim newscasts, persist in believing it's worth bettering their little corner of this world. And other corners, too. 

 Ten Influential Books

1. Little Women (The Illustrated Classics adaptation was the first novel I read. And so at six years old I learned the horrifying fascination of a book that has just torn your heart out but compels you to keep on reading through the tears).
2.  Trickster's Choice (I'd like to include all of Tamora Pierce's books, but I picked this one because I'm pretty sure it influenced a fictional world I created ten years ago and am still writing about today).
3. The Secret Garden (Is winter too depressing? Go read about the garden that heals everything).
4. Ordinary People (It was the first book I ever met that shook me so badly I didn't want to finish it. I had to, for school. And I still haven't gotten over it).
5. The Chronicles of Narnia (I'd pick one, but every time I re-read them it's a new book that lances me through the heart and shocks and speaks to me like a heavenly visitation. I hope that sounds as intense as this experience usually feels).
6. Maud: The Life of L.M. Montgomery ('If she can get up at 5 a.m. to write and get published at the age of sixteen, so can I!' said fourteen-year-old Erin).
7. A Game of Thrones (I had it on audiobook as a teenager. Drove my mom crazy. It was just a random pick from the library to entertain me while I finished a quilt, so I didn't even know there were more books. But I wondered about those characters for years until the HBO craze happened. I'm glad I didn't discover the next four books at that young age).
8. Say It! (This is a private memory, but I will say that Charlotte Zolotow can turn the quietest moments into the best picture books).
9. The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes (I now collect annotated nursery rhyme anthologies. Thanks, Iona and Peter Opie). 
10. Harry Potter and All The Things! (I am of the Harry Potter generation. What more need be said?).

So there you have it. Facebook challenges complete. 

P.S., I made some stuff recently. So I might be back.