Families, eating, chatting and books – Long ago when we were a young family I thought about how I wanted my children to be readers, how I loved the idea of sitting and talking with my children about books, the world and their life.
It all seemed like a impossible dream. We were always on the run as young families are. There was always work to be done or a place someone had to be. As they got older they were just gone – off into the world of friends, jobs and who knows what (I was sometimes afraid to ask.)
There were also those years when we just couldn’t agree on anything. It appeared we lived in very different worlds. I recall saying once to my daughter – “really I don’t want to spend the rest of our lives arguing with each other.” She in her all knowing way at the age of 17 told me it is just want we need to do in order to separate from each other and for her to become an adult. Well, ok then! – What do you say back to that?
Now it is many years later and last night a three of us met at a local bar and restaurant. (we were missing Pete, his partner and Missy’s partner.) We ordered dinner, drinks and settled back into a wonderful evening of conversation. We reviewed the day. She teaches third grade in a high poverty school with high behavior needs. So a bit of processing the day is always a good idea.
But that was short and we moved on to friends, weddings, world events – the good, the bad and the ugly, and then books. She is a reader.
While sick last week she spend the day reading The Color Purple. She wondered how she had gone this long with having not read it. I shared other books I have by Alice Walker and she let me know she had bought another one on kindle that Walker had written about life and chickens. We talked about books in our book groups and which children’s books she is sharing in her classroom.
Life was good and that impossible dream was there right before my eyes. We have become that family who talks, shares and reads. We share books by way of kindle and actual books as well. We talk, we listen and we learn from each other.
As we parted ways I smiled and felt a warm glow – I headed home, downloading her chicken book and settled into reading about chickens by Alice Walker.
Life is good!
The Chicken Chronicles: A Memoir
- Alice Walker –http://alicewalkersgarden.com/
Words from JL 
It is a wonderful feeling when your children grow up to be not only readers, but readers of books that you can discuss together! My son and i are Neil Gaiman fans and talk about his books. My daughter was late coming to a love of reading, but now I am blown away at the deep books she chooses to read. Life is good!
This is so encouraging to those of us who have young children. Just managing to get dinner on the table at a reasonable hour and not collapsing in exhaustion over the plate is hard enough some days, and trying to get my first grader to share bits of his day and conduct a conversation is alternately an exercise in frustration or hilarity. I look forward to the day when we can talk about books!
My son was here for a brief visit, encouraging both my husband and me to read Hillbilly Elegy because he wants to talk about it. These are the wonderful times! And let us know about The Chicken Chronicles, a new Alice Walker title for me.