{"id":2363,"date":"2018-09-07T18:55:21","date_gmt":"2018-09-07T22:55:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tamara.tedzplace.ca\/?p=2363"},"modified":"2019-03-15T23:16:41","modified_gmt":"2019-03-16T03:16:41","slug":"a-very-grand-love-affair","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tamara.tedzplace.ca\/?p=2363","title":{"rendered":"a very grand love affair…"},"content":{"rendered":"

Once again I find myself, absolutely besotted
\nwith a book
\nof course..\u00a0 well,\u00a0 there is this thing where I
\nam in love with books
\nbut sometimes there is a certain book, whose title I have read
\nor heard
\nwhose cover I have
\nseen
\nyet as my to-be-read pile is always close to toppling
\nI don\u2019t seem to get to
\nsaid book
\nand still,\u00a0 this book \u2026\u00a0 it calls to me
\nit pokes me, it prods
\nas was the case with Rumi and The Red Handbag by Shawna Lemay
\n<\/em>a book that kept speaking to me, in lovely little sign posts
\nuntil at last…\u00a0 it found me
\nand still, I could clutch it to my chest in gratitude for its simple perfection
\nthen came this,
\nThe Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery
\n<\/em>same kind of thing
\ncontinuously drifting into
\nmy space
\na book I even had in my hand a few times, but then
\nnever purchased
\nsomehow we kept crossing paths
\nfinally, I agreed to
\ntake it home
\nstill it sat on the shelf, while I read the several others who stood in line
\nbefore
\nfrom time to time, I\u2019d look up and my eyes would sweep across the blue spine
\nthe words The Elegance of the Hedgehog would make swirls on my tongue
\nand it hounded me until I was free
\nto begin
\nand it wasn\u2019t\u2019 love at first sight (or rather\u2026 read)
\nalthough the language itself was beautiful
\nI had begun in fits and starts, reading at work on breaks and at lunch
\nnot really time enough to get stuck in
\nso I wasn\u2019t\u2019 sure if we were
\ncompatible
\nI thought for a time, maybe it was beyond me ..
\nmaybe I was not smart enough to
\ntake it in
\nbut we were here, and really some things just
\ntake a little time
\nand so,\u00a0 I began again\u2026<\/p>\n

This morning,\u00a0 I finished
\nthen spent a little time, re-reading
\nand then for a time,\u00a0 I just sat
\nin gratitude,
\nand held the book
\nit is true, I am in love with books
\nbut just as true I believe is that I am in love with
\nwriters
\nin the words that they spin, that draw us in
\nthat lead one in the most graceful steps and swirls
\nwhere your feet hardly touch the floor
\nthat swoop in almost unknowingly like the ghost of Christmas past
\nand whisk you off to quietly watch as your story unfolds
\nright before your eyes
\nwords so beautiful they break your heart
\nbut somehow in the most
\nwonderful way
\nthat sweep you off your feet,
\nor place you, just firmly
\nin
\nyour
\nchair<\/p>\n

this afternoon, I am at the library
\nfirst to return a few books and then to pick up the one
\nwho awaits
\nI set my returns on the counter, and go off to collect
\nwhen I come back,\u00a0 the librarian is leafing through the book I have just returned
\nOne Writer\u2019s Garden: Eudora Welty\u2019s Home Place by Susan Haltom
\n<\/em>as she notices me,\u00a0 she looks rather sheepish
\nlike she has just been caught
\nhand in the cookie jar
\n\u201cI couldn\u2019t resist\u201d she says, and we both smile
\n\u201cIt\u2019s a wonderful book\u00a0 I tell her,\u00a0 it really is,
\nI had finished it, but I wasn’t quite ready to…
\nlet it go\u201c
\na few more words, then I step out the door, back into sunshine
\nI am smiling.. in full,\u00a0 how wonderful it can be to recognize
\na kindred<\/p>\n

I walk off, with a spring in my step,
\nand I think to myself…<\/p>\n

wouldn\u2019t it be wonderful to string together
\na few words
\nthat would make someone\u2019s heart
\nsmile\u00a0 \u2665<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Once again I find myself, absolutely besotted with a book of course..\u00a0 well,\u00a0 there is this thing where I am in love with books but sometimes there is a certain book, whose title I have read or heard whose cover…
Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2364,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[29,52,131,26],"class_list":["post-2363","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-booklove","tag-gratefulliving","tag-inlovewithwords","tag-writinglife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tamara.tedzplace.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2363","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tamara.tedzplace.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tamara.tedzplace.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tamara.tedzplace.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tamara.tedzplace.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2363"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/tamara.tedzplace.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2363\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2792,"href":"https:\/\/tamara.tedzplace.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2363\/revisions\/2792"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tamara.tedzplace.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2364"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tamara.tedzplace.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2363"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tamara.tedzplace.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2363"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tamara.tedzplace.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2363"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}