An Atlas of Impossible Longing

I recently finished reading this little gem of a book:

I love the vibrancy of eastern culture and this book definitely brought India to life. Roy is such a poetic author, too. Some of my favorite themes in this book were:

• The analogy of the house (and family) drowning then recovering as the water recedes
• A need for a secret, quiet place where people can think, escape, dream, and rest
• Tradition vs. following one's heart
• Parenthood: presence, absence, focus, adoption
• Religion: puja, Partition, Muslim and Hindu
• Speaking freely: the parrot, Kananbala, Larissa Barnum
• Love: parent to child, forbidden, marriage
• Gardening and nature

Have you ever read this book or any books by Roy? If so, I'd love to hear what you thought!

See ya, 2015

So long, 2015. Let's be honest, you were a doozy. Nevertheless, we had some good times too. The Word Of The Year was "DO," and do we did. Here's a little review of the ups and downs of 2015:




The very first day of the year, my brother's roof literally came crashing down from burst water pipes in his ceiling. He and his family stayed at our house for a month or so while his apartment was fixed. We all learned a lot about living with other people, and we enjoyed the company. Plus, I got to cook my first pheasant, compliments of my brother's hunting prowess.

I got to try out my snowshoes, and did some hiking, more hiking, more snowshoeing, and even more hiking!

Taking a leap and turning in a piece of artwork for the LDS International Art Competition was scary! I hadn't focused that hard on a finished piece of artwork in a long time, but it came together with a steady schedule and purpose. That was a lot of work, but I learned a lot about my art process along the way.

I had been really interested in beekeeping and took a class about it. I loved it! Bees are so amazing and I feel like we are kindred spirits. Oh tiny sisters, I love you! Unfortunately, we can't have bees in our current house, so it will need to wait until we have a different home.

I got back into rock climbing! It had been years since I last enjoyed it, but with a trusty friend to show me the ropes again, I took it up again and had some of my best lunch breaks!

For my birthday, we took a trip to Zion National Park with friends and went on some wicked cool hikes. We got to do some light bouldering and also visited the Valley of Fire, which will forever hold a special place in my heart. We stopped by a crazy cool ghost town and of course an old cemetery. We played games and talked without any children interrupting. Yes, it's a thing!

Not too soon after that, Kirk got laid off due to the dip in the oil market. Well, poop. While it was a major bummer, we looked for the silver lining and decided to move forward as a single income family with a stay-at-home parent. What a lucky kid we have! We had to make some major adjustments. It was a palette cleanser and turned out to be the catalyst for many life introspections and realignments in our lifestyle and the direction in which we want our family to go. All good things, but a painful route.

With a clear and free schedule, we were able to attend a wedding in San Diego last minute. The sunshine was just what we needed, the little kid got to go to the beach for the first time, and we got to see family that we hadn't seen in forever. Cousins, guys.

I got up the guts to submit my first piece of art to the Springville Museum of Art's Spring Salon. It was so much work too, but I am proud of the final product and loved the way the piece turned out.

Also, I got up the courage to get my own website up and running. There are a lot of moving parts and every time I would change something, I would discover 10 more things that I needed to do. Gah! So. Much. Work. But also, it's a labor of love that I'm super proud of! And, I got some business cards made, which helped me feel a lot more official. Being a business owner has been so rewarding and I can't believe I waited so long to get started. Once I got through all the worrying in my brain and got things done, it finally came together. I finally found my purpose and style, which was a major win!

I had my first art booth at the Beehive Bazaar last spring! For some reason, it was a super scary step for me to take but I was blown away by all the support from friends and family and was humbled that people liked my art enough to buy it. Thank you, friends! And, I got more comments on my booth than anything else. Kirk made it for me to display my wares. Isn't it amazing?

Our family took part in a fun run.

We were in charge of a large family reunion, and it was full of crazy fun times and crazy fun people. We hiked along a petroglyph ridge, visited our old stomping grounds in Nevada, spent time splashing in the pool, and swapped stories. We also got to spend some time with our little family visiting Zion again, and tricked our daughter into hiking with us there.

Pepper took some swim classes and turned into a little fish and may have proposed to her instructor.

I did some hiking, more hiking, even more hiking, and solo hiking.

Then, there was that one time I had a baby. He arrived a couple hours after one of my favorite woodsy hikes. He just needed a little encouragement but he came with a smile and a sense of humor. We took a couple weeks off of our regular lives while we adjusted and got to learn how we would be as a family of four. We spent those weeks exploring the wilderness, exploring more, and exploring even more.

We planted and cared for and harvested a garden and flower beds this year. We also got some unexpected blessings from our labors and dried, juiced, and froze some of the best food.

Again, we participated in the Beehive Bazaar. Kirk's booth construction was all the rage again, and I added more pieces to the booth. I loved making all the art!

We got to cheer Kirk on in his half marathon through the beautiful fall foliage. He practiced diligently and did a great job!

I submitted my first-ever art piece to the Springville Art Museum's Religious and Spiritual exhibit. Again, it was a ton of work but I love the way the piece turned out. (The post will be up soon!) Plus, I was able to see a vast difference between this piece and my first submission from earlier in the year. Progress, guys!

I read some books.

Pepper's preschool ended, and she said goodbye to her friends there and hello to a full-time life with a great stay-at-home dad. She started a dance class, though, and fell in love with performing on stage!

My brother got married! In a whirlwind of familial excitement we spent loads of time planning, prepping, doling out unsolicited advice, and participating in general merriment. I took photos of our family with all the new additions before we all went our separate ways and started our own roots.

I got in some delicious autumn hiking, more hiking, and even tried mountain yoga hiking!

We partook in some of our favorite holiday traditions during the fall and Christmas seasons. The last quarter of the year is always one of our favorites! We also started new traditions to make our family life more intentional and to encourage one-on-one time and great family times too.

We cheered Kirk on in another race and got to share in the sugary spoils.

I tried a new thing on Instagram where I posted a different art series every month. I did an alphabet bird series, an autumn leaf watercolor series, and a series of requested wildlife sketches. I love being able to share my art with others!




2015 was indeed a doozy. While we are still trying to figure things out, we are managing to make the best of it and enjoy our precious family time while we can. 2015 was a good lesson in reevaluating constantly, making purposeful decisions, and getting up the courage to do things (because waiting through all the thinking is oftentimes more painful and difficult than actually getting things done!) So, there you have a few of our highlights from last year.

After talking with a friend about how I didn't think 2015 was a really good year, and that I felt I hadn't accomplished much, I was encouraged to write about it. Once I started writing, it opened my eyes to the many positive things we experienced last year, even amid the challenges. It was a great exercise in positivity and looking back I was surprised at what we were able to accomplish during crazy times and despite a definite funk.

So, if you've made it this far, first, you're a dedicated soul (thank you!) and second, I'm passing the advice forward. You don't need to post it publicly, but I encourage you to reflect on your past year if you haven't done so already and write down some of the major events. Looking back on your photos and social media accounts might help you out. So what do you say?

Creativity Inc.

I recently finished reading Creativity, Inc., by Ed Catmull:

It's a business management book with great insights into fostering a creative environment in the workplace. Some of my favorite takeaways are:

1) Do not be afraid of hiring people who are smarter than you
2) Remember that people are always more important than ideas (because ideas come from people)
3) Be candid, which is being more than just honest
4) Search for the real underlying issues, not simply surface problems which are usually side-effects of larger problems
5) Keep the communication and management structures separate (they should not be one and the same)
6) Invite problem solving from every employee
7) Fail fast in order to reach the correct solution sooner

I never imagined I'd ever be drawn to non-fiction, especially business books, since they often seemed so dry to me, but this one is a winner! I totally devoured it. Do you like reading business books? Any good suggestions?

Son

I recently finished Son, by Lois Lowry:

It's the final of four novels intertwined with the award-winning The Giver. It was a good read and nice closure to the series. The following themes stood out to me:

• sacrifice for family
• preparation
• gaining education/ knowledge
• the power of fear
• the greater power of love
• unique gifts each person can contribute (whether to family or larger communities)

Like two other most recent ones, Gathering Blue, and Messenger, this book seemed to end abruptly following an anticlimactic climax. However, this book is geared toward youths, so it can't be to crazy, youknowhatImean?

Have you read this book before?

The Folded Earth

I just finished reading a beautifully written book, The Folded Earth, by Anuradha Roy:

The story is set in modern times and takes place in an rural mountain town. The gorgeous prose, the intertwining characters, and the poignant analogies all make this book a keeper, for sure. Some of my favorite themes throughout this novel were:

• Sea people and hill people: feeling a constant yearning for a certain type of landscape
• The way weather mirrors the characters' emotive state
• Family: defining your own or rejecting your biological
• The presence of nature and nature-inspired analogies that support and foreshadow plot lines
• Modern and primitive practices coexisting in a single environment

It's such an amazing book, have you read it?

Messenger by Lois Lowry

To break up the onslaught of California adventure posts, here's a tasty literature treat to chew on. I recently finished Messenger, by Lois Lowry:

This is part of a series of books that correlates with The Giver, one of the greatest adolescent literature books of all time. It also ties together the stories of the characters from The Giver as well as Gathering Blue. (See thoughts on both here and here.)

Messenger is one of those overtly religious texts with Christian symbolism and parallels, but I find it refreshing and insightful. This book is more entertaining and also has more substance and weight than Gathering Blue.

Have you read this book before? If yes, what were your thoughts?

Gathering Blue by Lois Lowry

I recently finished reading Gathering Blue, by Lois Lowry:

If you liked reading The Giver (a Newberry Award winner for adolescent literature), you will probably like this alternate future tale of a youth discovering an inner gift and ultimately a better way of living.

Although it seemed to end abruptly, I enjoyed the exploration of love vs. duty, what it means to contribute to a community, the value of creatives, fresh starts, and improving surroundings.

Have you read it? What did you think?

The God of Small Things

The God of Small Things, by Arundhati Roy is a powerful and tender book that I recently finished reading about a family in India during the 70's :

While it was sad, it was also touching and human. I loved the literary themes I discovered while reading this gem:

• The idea of individuality vs. oneness and sameness
• The thought that family members cause internal familial destruction much more than outside forces; destruction from the inside out
• Loving someone double, or less vs. unconditional love
• The destructive power of words said in anger
• Consequences that ripple to innocents and through generations
• A mother's need for a personal identity aside from the role as mother

Have you read this or would you like to? If you've already got this one under your belt, what were your thoughts about it?

The Merchant of Venice

I recently finished reading the heartbreaking Merchant of Venice by ole' Billy Shakespeare:

Oh, friends! This play is amazing! It is partly a comedy but also considered a tragedy when read with a modern perspective. Some points that stood out to me reading it this time around were:

• The love of family, especially between father and daughter
• The nature of parenthood vs. being a blood relative
• Mercy vs. Justice, and the reciprocity of both
• The nature of hatred, it's growth pattern and consequences
• Religious fervor, and conversion as a punishment
• The cost of being beholden, and paying interest
• The relationship between risk and reward
• True friendship and the characteristics of a real friend

A couple other specifics that I found poignant were the homosexual tones in Antonio and Bassanio's relationship. I had never noticed that or considered it before, but it changed many aspects of the play once I read it with that filter. Also, I couldn't help but empathize with Jessica, as she watched her Shylock's demise, knowing that her actions fanned the flames of hatred which left her father in ruin. She had to have known that leaving would devastate her father, and because her friends were the ones receiving the brunt of his wrath, she couldn't simply run away from her problems and start a new life. She was in a way forced to watch all the consequences play out in front of her. She made a brave decision to separate herself from a strong cultural gravity and assert her independence, but she must have felt a heavy responsibility for what happened to the other characters as a result.

Anyway, this gets a thumbs up, for sure! Have you read it or will you if you haven't yet? If you have read it already, what did you like about it?

Journey

To break up the monotony of a very long series of Asian travel posts, chew on this. We recently read Journey by Max Zimmer for our monthly literary discussion:

It's a semi-autobiographical novel about a young boy growing up with his immigrant parents in the Salt Lake City area. Reading this kind of book goes against everything in my book of literature rules, so I wasn't expecting much. However, I was pleasantly surprised, and by the end realized that I was actually interested in the book. It was a painful beginning, but I managed to get over it.

Plus, I'm a sucker for musical analogies, and I couldn't help but think of my amazing trumpet-playing brother, who is currently residing in the arctic tundra, or Canada. Sometimes they are the same. (Heyyy, little bro! Keep warm!)

So. I hear this is the first of three books and that the second book is better. (Reading books in series also usually goes against my book beliefs.) And the third book is supposed to come out next spring, and I'm trying really hard not to judge. I guess you could say this book sent me on my own difficult journey.

So, dish. What are your most ridiculously snobby reading rules you have, if any?

Pearl Buck in China

I had the pleasure of reading the following book, (in China, of all places, what are the odds of that?!):

Have you ever read The Good Earth by Pearl Buck? If you have, you might have noticed how the language of the novel makes it sound like it's been translated and how authentic the characters are. I always wondered how Buck, and American author, could nail a unique perspective with such believability.

After reading this biography about her, I learned that not only was Buck raised in China, she was pretty much native Chinese, so she was genuinely able to channel the eastern perspective. I also learned that as she wrote, she thought most naturally in Chinese, then translated her thoughts into English as she wrote them down (that totally explains why the sentences in The Good Earth sound like they've been translated--'cause they were). So, my big questions were answered by this book. Nice!

Plus, I had no idea that Pearl Buck was such a forward-thinking feminist. So, that was a happy surprise for me.

Confession: I'm not much of a biography reader because I tend to get bored. Although this book for sure had its slow parts (and its name-dropping shenanigans), I still found it valuable and I was more than just interested in it by the end. That being said, I'm not going to go out searching for the next fascinating biography any time soon.

So. Fess up. Are you a biography reader or no?

To Kill a Mockingbird

So, we read To Kill a Mockingbird for our literary discussion group recently:

This is one book that I will read over and over in my lifetime, it's that good. I've read this several times since I've been in middle school, and each time I find something else that stands out to me. This time around, the statements about gender roles really hit the mark.

There's a lot of talk about what it means to be a lady or a gentleman, or who is acting like a girl. As the children get older, they try and find a balance between gender equality and being polite or fitting in with the rest of their society, which is strictly defined by gender. It is interesting to see the wisdom of both the children and Atticus regarding this issue.

There are so many major themes that Lee addresses that this novel can be read with multiple critical perspectives. This time I analyzed the novel from a feminist perspective. What stood out to you the last time you read this classic?

The Life of Pi

I've been meaning to read this little gem of a book for several years now, and put off seeing the movie so that I could enjoy the book first. (Still haven't seen it yet. First things first.) We recently read this as part of our literary discussion group.

While it fell short technically, the story was so fascinating on its own that it carried the novel to a good place. There were several discourses I found interesting, like the religious explorations and nature of animals as evidenced by zoo life. (This book totally gave me a new perspective on the lives of zoo creatures, which I found surprisingly enlightening.)

Other themes I found interesting were:

• the cycle of life, the drive to remain alive, self-preservation, survival
• hierarchy, alpha and omega citizens
• territory, environment, habitats, and the adaptation thereof
• the interconnectedness of religions with one another and with nature
• humans placement with other animals or as part of the animal world
• "The measure of madness that moves life in strange but saving ways."
• individual survival vs. empathy for others' suffering
• the importance of family relationships
• pain, suffering, discomfort as seen relatively
• storytelling, passing time, imagination vs. perception
• humans' preference for stories of animals with human traits instead of animalistic humans

There was a lot of good material to sift through. I'm sure I'll read this book again. I appreciated the ending the most, though. Stroke of genius, that.

Have you read this one yet? What were your ponderings on the ending?

Dandelion Wine

 

At the beginning of the summer, we read Dandelion Wine for our monthly literary gathering to help start our summers the right way. The writing style is easy and natural, and the vignettes of individual characters are poignant and brightly painted. Not only is this an entertaining read, but the content is meaningful as well.

Some of the themes in this book that we discussed were:

• youth vs. age, coming of age, living and dying
• preserving time and happiness
• record-keeping, memory-keeping, memorabilia
• technology vs. nature
• human nature vs. mother nature
• reincarnation

We found so many interesting characters that we wanted to study from this novel but didn't have time to cover even a handful. I love this book so much that I would marry it if I weren't already married.

Thoughts? Have you read this delightful piece?

Gilead

The latest read for our literary gathering was Gilead:

Some of our topics of discussion included ritual, fire, the beloved, and lonliness. This is a gentle and slow read, meant to be savored thoughtfully. Love this one.

Have you read this? If so, what did you think?

The Dance of the Dissident Daughter

I've recently enjoyed this gem of a book:

I was afraid to start reading it because I had a feeling in my bones that it would be a life-changer. It sounds kind of silly when I say it now, but I was scared that it might shake my faith in a religion that love but can still observe critically. However, this book only solidified my spirituality, and has been directing me toward more intentional peace and meaningful existence.

The way she spun her tale of journeying toward the Sacred Feminine completely resonated with me, and I identified with every step of her process. I feel like the enlightenment and empowerment that accompanied me throughout the reading have continued to be my companions.

I love this book and will need to make it part of my personal canon. Have you read this book? What did you think? Is there a book that fits effortlessly into your own personal canon?

The Giver

For our most recent Literary Club read, we savored The Giver, by Lois Lowry:

This Newberry Award winner is one of my favorites, and as such, I've revisited this treasure about 5 times so far in my little life. Admittedly, much of the symbolism and discussion topics aren't as veiled, but I chalk that up to the adolescent literature genre. We had a riveting discussion, and some of our topics included:

• A utopian society founded on all the good governing principals, and even with the best intentions for equality, health, safety, manners, peace, and wholesome work is passive and dystopiac in nature.
• This novel as read through an atonement and Christian lens lends an interesting perspective.
• The ways in which mothers and nurturers are separated as two different roles and the ways each role is valued
• False vs. true emotions, memories, relationships, existence
• Technology vs. simplicity
• The significance of a name

Have you read this book? What is your favorite part about it?

The Secret Life of Bees

We reviewed The Secret Life of Bees, by Sue Monk Kidd for our literature group:

Some of our favorite topics of discussion were:

• inner fire, flames, heat
• healing: grief, holding others' sorrow, pain, and depression, love
• ritual: sacredness in daily activities, manna, worship
• honey and bees: uses and properties of honey, functionality and members of a hive, characteristics of each type of bee in a hive (industrious, sweet, a sisterhood)
• female deity: mother of thousands, queen
• Respect for life: rebirth, death, resurrection

This is probably one of my all-time favorites because of its strong and gentle female characters, and the respect and love shown to all things in the earth. Also, the racially-charged plot is about a million times better than some of the other facetious books I've read recently. Have you read this book yet? Do tell!

The Mormon Tabernacle Inquirer

So, my dear friend and reading buddy handed me this book, and with a wry look on her face told me to enjoy:

It turns out that this tongue-in-cheek nonsense was just what I needed to lighten up a little bit! I even took this book to work to read on my breaks and had a difficult time explaining myself when people asked why I was laughing so loudly.

Seriously. I laughed huge belly laughs out loud every time I opened this book. If you share in the joy and sometimes ridiculousness that is the Latter-Day Saint faith, I highly recommend this, but only if you can step back and giggle at yourself for a second.

Has anyone else read this tabloid-style novel yet? If so, what did you think?

The Rent Collector

I recently read The Rent Collector, by Camron Wright. While it is interesting and a feel-good story about walking in someone's shoes, I felt like the points and themes were forced. It is a discourse on literature in the guise of a story. However, I feel the following points of discussion are still worth addressing:

• eastern vs. western perspective
• kindness, mercy, empathy and success as a consequence of education
• getting to know someone before judging

Have you read this book before? If so, what are your thoughts?