A daughter may outgrow your lap, but she will never outgrow your heart. ~Author Unknown

*****

She is in 10th grade and cheerfully talks about leaving right after High School.  

She wants to be in the military or go to Colorado for college.

Inside, my heart aches but I believe in letting the children go their own way, giving them freedom to make life plans.

In the meantime, my heart cherishes every moment with her.

On Saturday night, just the two of us went to Barnes and Noble to sit and read, sip chai tea, and journal.

After wandering the bookshelves, I joined her at a little round table to look through the stack of books I picked out.

1) By the Book was interesting because in each chapter, a different literary person is asked several questions about books– their favorite book, what they are currently reading, what book they couldn’t finish, and so on.  I wrote down a few books that looked interesting.  2)  I find the story of Chris McCandless fascinating, so I thought I would browse his sister’s new book, The Wild Truth, which gave her own perspective of the tragic events.   All in all, I wasn’t interested in reading it in depth because it was more about her own life, rather than her brother’s.  3) Delicious Probiotic Drinks was great, and a book I will purchase through amazon.  4) A Room of One’s Own will be a book I borrow from the library.  5) Portraits and Profiles was a photography book with essays, well written and interesting.

“Whenever I read a passage that moves me, I transcribe it in my diary, hoping my fingers might learn what excellence feels like.”  David Sedaris, in By the Book.

“I like nonfiction books about people with wretched lives.”  David Sedaris

“…she is joyously healthy and undoubtedly eats an apple a day….”  Cecil Beaton, in Portraits and Profiles, writing of Katherine Hepburn

Eventually, we left our little table and went over to the children’s section to sit on the floor.  We sat for quite a while, enjoying each other’s company and the wonderful new books we discovered.  Grace especially enjoyed Nuts to You, and kept reading me parts from it while laughing.  The Dark, by Lemony Snicket, was adorable.  The Squirrel’s Birthday and other Parties by Toon Tellegen, was a darling new discovery for me,  a book that was written over 25 years ago by a Dutch father who told the stories to his daughter as she was growing up.  He eventually wrote them all down and it has become a beloved book comparable to Winnie the Pooh.  Wainscott Weasel was about a weasel in love with a fish.  Can you even imagine?  Mean Margaret contains a story with animals that talk, and a terrible toddler from a family with nine children.  It made me chuckle.  Mister Max was written by a favorite author of mine, Cynthia Voigt.  Roland Smith is a favorite author of Jacob, Ethan, and Grace.  He has written a couple of series of books that they liked very much.  It is sad that the boys have grown up in the midst of the series and have lost interest in how things are going for the characters in the books.  Mutation and Alcatraz are two latest books in those series.  Grace and I had a discussion about how “you are never too old to read a children’s book.”  And I thought of C.S. Lewis, who explained it so much better:

“Critics who treat ‘adult’ as a term of approval, instead of as a merely descriptive term, cannot be adult themselves. To be concerned about being grown up, to admire the grown up because it is grown up, to blush at the suspicion of being childish; these things are the marks of childhood and adolescence. And in childhood and adolescence they are, in moderation, healthy symptoms. Young things ought to want to grow. But to carry on into middle life or even into early manhood this concern about being adult is a mark of really arrested development. When I was ten, I read fairy tales in secret and would have been ashamed if I had been found doing so. Now that I am fifty I read them openly. When I became a man I put away childish things, including the fear of childishness and the desire to be very grown up.”  CS Lewis

One of the wonderful blessings of having children of all ages is that you are compelled to keep reading books for all ages.

After filling up our minds with books, we meandered over to Moes and filled up our tummies with nachos.

Talking all the way, my Gracie-girl and me.