Little books, big ideas...

Today, I looked at my bookshelf and tucked between all the “regular” books were little books: poetry, soap-making, quotations, meditations, and Chagall. I gathered them all up to re-visit. I love the book called Mom compiled by Helen Exley and illustrated by Joanne Kidney. My daughters gave me this book when my mother died last year. This little book is little: only four inches high but it provides sweet quotations that remind of me of the Mom I loved, as well as of the Mom I try to be. The inscription makes me smile:  Mom, I’m sorry about Grandma but thanks for being such a great Mom to us. We love you lots, Love, Mindy, Amy Lissa

I love this particular quotation by the daughter of Alice Walker:

I have learned to really hear the message

my mother has given me all my life:

I will be with you always,

as in forever,

into the eternal hereafter,

no matter what.

                                                   --Rebecca Walters

My Mom is with me.

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Josie Iselin’s Heart Stones is a book I wanted to create. You see, we both collect heart-shaped rocks. IT was a perfect Valentine present which I gave to myself. Her rocks are photographed against a black background and each one is characterized by a word: love, strength, romance, imagination, esteem…some make sense to me, some don’t. But I love this little book just as I love my own rocks.

Rocks are a great thing to collect.  It doesn’t cost anything, you can do it anywhere you are, and friends delight you with the rocks they find for you. A friend of mine, Leslie, was heading to the base camps of Everest. I loved reading Krakauer’s book Into Thin Air and was so excited for her adventure. She was exuberant.

She asked me if there was anything I wanted from that part of the world. I said no…and then said, well, if you find one, bring me a heart- shaped rock. I will never forget the look on her face when she returned and revealed what she had found…a beautiful rock from the paths leading to Everest. I will always treasure it.

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Kathy Corey and Lynn Blackman’s Rituals for the Bath provides “over 80 natural, beautiful products you can make at home.” I love this book and will keep it for a time when I have just that… time. One year for Christmas, I made glycerin soaps for all my sisters and sisters-in-law.  My soaps were laced with rosemary and mint, loofa embedded, all with perfumed essences. It was easy but so satisfying even though I cheated with glycerin blocks from Michael’s.

Making soap piqued my interest and I started reading, Before long I was envisioning making my own lye from the remains of fires;  ash in logs dripping down into a primitive bucket that I would then turn into soap, as the colonial women did. Just kidding. But I did read about that.

This little book provides many shortcuts…and I can’t wait to make some soaps again. Besides, it is a great hostess gift…Everyone uses soap!