Reading Stories

It's Sunday.  It's noon.  My laundry is whirling around in the washer, most of my housecleaning was done yesterday, this is my day to relax.  Until its time to get some groceries, that is.

So I've been doing a lot of reading today.  I get a subscription to the reader's digest book thing, one book, two stories, every other month. This time, they were both wonderful stories that I couldn't put down.  Beach House Memories is where a woman with cancer relives her greatest memory at her beach house... learning about life and love, of course.  It has a shockingly expected ending, and I hated for the story to end.  The second book, Lost December, is a story of a boy who comes of age, and chooses a different path for his life.  In the long run, he loses it all, but gains so much more.

Both books seem to have a similar theme about life lessons, and how our choices affect our futures.  When we're young, we don't often see our path very clearly - and sometimes what we see isn't what we think we want.  For me, I didn't go to college.  And I should have.  Maybe I shouldn't have gotten married so young, but would that have affected the children I have?  So many things we don't know, can't see or predict, but they have a way of affecting what our future holds so many decades down the road.

I could easily relate to both of the main characters in the book.  In the first, a story of a woman who marries because it's expected, has children, is the woman behind the successful husband.  And yet her life isn't happy until she meets "the one" - a love so true, she feels they're meant to be together.  But chooses her original life path, because of the ripple effect it would have on so many others around her.  Just like the mother in Bridges of Madison County, who chooses to stay to raise her kids, putting their needs above her own.  I'm sure many women can relate to that scenario!

In the second story, Luke decides he doesn't want to take the reins of the company his father built, so off he goes, living on his trust fund, and trusting friends who aren't true friends.  He finds himself down and out, having to start all over again rebuilding his life.  Sometimes I think its the daily little struggles that make our lives worthwhile.  If things, money, or an easy way is handed to a person, there's no real sense of ownership of that life.  Starting over may be one of the hardest risks a person ever has to take, but its sure worth it in the long run.

For me, I thought I was starting over when I left Calif for Ohio - but that turned out to be just replacing one set of issues for another.  When I left Ohio for Arizona, and had to start again with apt deposits, and the goal to buy my own house -- that was truly starting over.  Every dime was scrapped and saved.  My son and I never went hungry, but we didn't indulge in extras.  When you set your mind to something, you can achieve great things -- with perseverance and hard work!!