There is something about escaping into someone's world
that frees my soul.
I love to hear the thoughts, feel the emotion,
discover the joy in someone else's head.
At the writers conference this spring
my good friend Rene Gutteridge, Rene with one "E",
introduced me to Renee Riva, Renee with two "EE"s.
After we met, I ran into her around every corner at Mt. Hermon.
She was like the Holy Spirit - everywhere at once.
So we took it as a sign we were meant to be friends.
And then I read her book, Saving Sailor.
I got to get into the savvy blond head of an 9 year old girl named AJ
during the best summer of her life,
drifting on the lake with her dog, Sailor,
dreaming about Little Joe Cartwright,
and squeezing the fun out of each day
with her 4 siblings, her park ranger dad and
her glamorous mother who looked like Sophia Loren.
It shot me right back to my own 9 year old summer.
To my crush on Brad Hogan, cutest fifth grader ever to grace the earth,
eating milk drenched sugar cereal straight out of a mini sized box,
and sneaking my kittens into bed with me
after my parents were asleep.
It brought to mind those long languid childhood summer days
that stretched out before me like the sugary beads on a candy neclace,
each day sweeter than the one before.
I finished it last night and
immediately wanted to don cut off shorts and eat an otter pop.
It was a delicious, funny, Jesus loves me read.
Just the way to start out my summer.
All I need now is some homemade peach ice cream.
2 comments:
I'll have to check it out! I'll never forget the winter in Ohio when we made ice cream out of snow. Wow, I haven't thought of that in years...
It's so fun to have those summer memories isn't it? For me it was swimming in canals and homemade peach ice cream. Good stuff!
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