Winter winked at me, we let loose in a crowd, and I got lost in the stacks
3 Small Items of Great Delight in the Dark Days of Not-Yet Winter
Welcome, new readers of The Book Case. If you’ve subscribed recently (hello!), this newsletter is where I talk about writing and books from my perspective as a reader and book coach. Each issue houses a new entry to one of three sections: Writing on Purpose, 3 Small Items of Great Delight, and a soon-to-be released feature on the reader’s experience. I also use this space to mention my business services, workshops, courses or products. Like this, below.
WRITERS: Only a few days left to book your escape! Get back to your book in 2024 by joining Rekindle Creativity, a women’s winter writing retreat in Huntsville, Ontario, taking place January 16-19, 2024. I am co-organizing this retreat with fellow book coach
to give writers place and space to make progress on their books. As a bonus, we’re offering a free book coaching session to every attendee. Want to join us? Visit our website at www.rekindlecreativity.comBut mostly, I want you join me in my celebration of reading, writing, and the parts of life that make it worth living. I hope you’ll stick around and feel welcome to participate in the comments.
Today, I offer you another edition of 3 SMALL ITEMS OF GREAT DELIGHT. In this series, I am exploring the practice of delight. It’s a mindset. It is mindfulness. It asks you to be open to receiving gifts unexpected. It was taught to me by two artists who shared their delights with me. So far, this is what I know:
Delight is to be shared.
Delight is to be offered in friendship.
Delight is to be centred and made into art.
These are my discoveries this month. Tell me in the comments: What delights you?
SMALL ITEM 1
The Patterns of Winter
Winter brings us beauty in the most unexpected places. I look forward to the blue light at night, and the glow of snow through my curtains. The sound of skates on ice.
This year, we had a Green Christmas, which is nearly the same as a Blue Christmas, in my books. When November brought us a crispy covering of snow, suddenly the darkness of autumn was banished. The air was clear and fresh, and so was my attitude. Then, it melted. They both did.
Alexander Rostov, the central character in Amos Towles’ novel A Gentleman in Moscow, is a man sentenced to house arrest in a grand hotel in 1922. Alexander believes less in the power of man than in the celestial, we learn; the seasons and the climate are more likely to influence the outcomes of our lives, he believes, than the machinations of humans. His circumstances say otherwise, but there is something to that assertion. We come to depend on the seasons and climate. The summer, here in Northeastern Ontario, is short. We take advantage of every moment in the sun with BBQs, road trips, camping and lakeside pursuits. Long weekends are packed with people and parties and yardwork. Our growing season is short, too, so we can’t dally over gardening. The May long weekend (see ‘BBQs’ above) pairs gardening gloves with beer cozies.
And winter. We can’t ignore it. Well, some can, and they do, heading down to Florida each year. The rest of us remain rooted here, weighted to the earth in our Sorel boots, shovelling and scraping windshields. Skis and snowmobiles and snowshoes are pulled to the front of the garage, while the pool noodles are pushed back. What the Floridian snowbirds miss, however, is winter’s peace. It shows up in patterns of frost and in sparkles of light off the snow. The birches turn blue and pink under the January sun. We see the prints of cross-country skiis and snowshoes crossing with prints of rabbits.
On Christmas Eve, I met up with two friends for a walk at the lake. The weather was mild. We wore shoes, not boots, and winter hats were optional. The lake was still open. An otter skidded across the shore and then across the thin ice at the shore.
We stopped to admire the ice pattern. The melting of the ice each morning and its nightly freezing formed a textured shield at the surface.
Look at that! I exclaimed.
Like a turtle’s back, my friend noted.
Winter may have been pushed back, but there she was hiding in the ice, winking at us.
SMALL ITEM 2
Being Part of the Crowd
How fun it was to be reminded of the joys of being loud in a crowd! The home opener of the Sudbury Five, the local basketball team, got us out into the night last week, with thousands of other Sudburians.
As we walked to the arena, the crowd on the sidewalk grew bigger the closer we came. My spouse and I followed the kids at a faster and faster pace as we neared the venue. The arena entrance was packed, and we stood in line for the ticket gate, greeting people we know. In the stands, we sat shoulder to shoulder in our puffy winter jackets with strangers. I happily people-watched, and gave in to the genetic bequest of my dad which dictates we look for familiar faces in a crowd. (I found them – an acquaintance sitting with her family only a few rows below, a former teammate of my son seated across the arena.)
The game began and we gave our attention to it. Excitement gathers in crowds, and we let ourselves become part of it. We cheered and jeered and laughed. We were loud together, part of a consciousness bigger than our individual selves.
SMALL ITEM 3
An Unexpected Hour at the Library
It’s a rare day lately when I have an hour unscheduled, but I yearn for breathing space in and around my work hours, between meals and activity, between extracurricular and bedtime. That’s how we stay healthy— No, that’s how we stay human. We need moments to let our thoughts settle; we need place for intention and connection. But in the late fall, the breathing space collapsed under my workload and my days were scheduled for me.
So when I found myself with a free hour on a dark night in November, I was initially stumped. Surely I had something to do? I checked in on my mental to-do list. Nope. All good.
I was downtown, and I didn’t want to spend money on another latte while I waited to pick up my son from practice. I drove out into the streets.
A block away, the library’s lights caught my eye. The library! I hadn’t thought of the library. The one close to home has a ragged schedule, and you always have to check the time before you go. But this branch was open. I needed no books, but what if I just went anyway?
Inside, a poetry reading was in progress. Uncharacteristically, I walked by, and headed to the back.
It was peaceful there. The city shelter wasn’t open yet, clearly, because quite a few men were scattered about the tables, reading or using the computers, their bags of belongings at their feet. I was glad they had this space to rest, without being moved on, outside of the negotiations of street life.
Piles of books had been left on the tables, not yet restacked. My curiosity was piqued. I sat down and pulled one pile towards me. A book about rocks, another about cat breeds, and a third on The Prairies. In a second pile, a curious mind had investigated religion, our planet Earth, the poems of Michael Ondaatje, and Ted Bundy. I imagined who these readers might be. I flipped the pages of the books slowly, read passages and tables of content.
A book about rocks, another about cat breeds, and a third on The Prairies. In a second pile, a curious mind had investigated religion, our planet Earth, the poems of Michael Ondaatje, and Ted Bundy. I imagined who these readers might be.
Later, I rose and meandered into the nonfiction stacks. As a child, I had loved browsing through the stacks of our little library. I’d find books on all sorts of things: King Tut, etiquette, religious texts, how-to books. And here they still were. I passed cookbooks, and spiritual self-help, histories and instruction manuals.
Thinking of the random book piles I had just examined, I let whim be the rule, and I built my own pile of interest.
I whiled away the hour this way, unhurriedly turning pages, letting my attention wander as it would, letting the clock tick.
Wait! There’s one more…
BONUS
A Bookish Delight
One of my library discoveries brought a smile to my face: Bibliophile: An Illustrated Miscellany by Jane Mount, a book I had heard of but never seen. Every detail of this book is a pleasure, from its size to its illustrations to its content…to the red ribbon bookmark that transforms any book to a collectible. What I was wowed by was how many hours of dedication the author must have invested in this project, not to mention the efforts of the editorial and design teams. Astounding. Find it at your library!
Your turn
Think about the last few days. What caught your eye? What made your heart happy? Small or big, unusual or common, please share Add your delights to the comments.
READY TO WRITE YOUR BOOK?
I have 2 coaching spots available for February 2024!
Do you have a book in you? Do you have expertise or wisdom that could make this world a better place if only you could share it with a wider audience? What would it mean if you could speak directly to people who wanted to hear what you have to say? A book coach can help you do that.
Book a 12-week coaching package with me and in three months, you’ll know whether you want to move ahead with your project. You’ll have in hand:
a clear idea of your reading audience
the expertise you have that will solve their problems
or change their mindsa table of contents and a framework for your book
two sample chapters in first draft
a plan to move forward into publishing, whether that is traditional, self-publishing or hybrid
As your book coach, I’ll be there guiding you through each step of the planning. We’ll take the seed of your idea and grow it into a book structure that conveys your message to reader clearly and with confidence. You’ll identify your target readers, understand how you can convey your message clearly, and imagine your book into reality.
You’ll have me by your side coaching you to be the expert you already are.
Also available: Month-to-month mid-manuscript accountability support, a 50-page manuscript evaluation, revision support, and book proposal coaching.
Book a free 30-minute meet-me call and you can see if coaching is what you need to finish your book in 2024.
On more thing: It’s important, too. A coaching relationship must be the right fit between coach and client. Please feel welcome to visit my website, my LinkedIn profile or my Facebook page to find out more about me. Questions? Get in touch here on Substack or through my website.
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