Camellias on moss

I have just finished reading 'The Elegance of the Hedgehog' by Muriel Barbery, a translation from the french original. It's a little quirky, but the underlying message is something that I have long held onto. Life is full of pain and sadness, hypocrisy and doubt,  and yet there is also so much beauty, seek out those moments of untold, awe-inspiring beauty. 









The preoccupations of both heroines resonates with me on some levels, running a guesthouse is probably not too far away from being a concierge, and Paloma the misunderstood schoolgirl who's trying to find some sense to it all. I feel a million miles away from the wealthy Paris banlieu, sans regrets, but it was still a good read, and for once any easy book to do with children, as you can quite easily put down and pick up.

The Middle Place

I have just received another shipment from Amazon, so I'm greedily devouring my new acquisitions, and of course it gives me the perfect 'excuse' to sit still and relax, particularly as I'm just getting to be too big for words - I really do feel like I'm about to pop, and there's still a whole month to go, at least in theory!

Anyway today I want to blog about Kerry Corrigan's inspirational book 'The Middle Place'. A moving story about Kelly's experiences coping with cancer, but it's much more than just that, it really cuts to the essentials of life, and I'm able to empathize a little too much with the pre-cancer Kelly, who's not really quite grown up yet, but somewhere lost in between childhood and real wisdom! She also has just an incredible network of loving family and friends supporting her. It's really a remarkable book, and not the downer you might expect. The author also has a great blog - her article Daring girl is worth a read, not to mention her cancer support page www.circusofcancer.org. She is also involved with an interesting parenting site, based in the Bay Area - Science for Raising Happy Kids. Having spent time living in the Bay Area it really is VERY Berkeley. For me one of the starkest and hardest difference to reconcile between Viriamu and myself are our approaches to children and parenting, these are pretty fundamental differences in values, and it's becoming a big rub for me, I need to look for the balance between my sentimentality and his hardness. Viriamu had a very different upbringing, children here in Rurutu/French Polynesia (at least from Viriamu's generation) don't necessarily enjoy what I consider to be a real childhood, they are expected to work and put up and shut up, for the most part. While I believe in the values of hard work, to me family relationships here seem cold and joyless, children are not expected to be engaged in conversations and have opinions. That said I do feel that my own childhood, where I was cherished and protected from life by kind and loving parents, may have left me emotionally fragile, unprepared to deal with the harsher realities of life.......anyway this gives me plenty to ruminate about! I still have plenty to learn! Happy reading......