Carmel Hanes's Blog, page 2
October 23, 2017
Influences
Today, I think about the many influences I have had in life, realizing the various directions those influences have nudged me.
One of my first nudges came from teachers who looked past my reticence to speak up in class to see that I had things to say, but preferred to put it on paper, encouraging me to do so.
My life-long love affair with books nudged an appreciation for the power of deep observation, the importance of every word, and the desire to use those words to draw surprising and fresh pictures in the minds of the reader as they transported to new worlds. I have been especially influenced by the prose of Sue Monk Kidd, Kingsolver, and Lamott. Lamott's book, "Bird by Bird" started me on the path of keeping notes about what I saw, felt, heard, tasted, thought, which eventually grew into the tentative confidence to start the assembly process in "Crooked Grow the Trees".
My favorite book, "To Kill a Mockingbird" continues to influence my sense of justice and all that is admirable and devastating in relationships.
Most of all, crossing paths with an assortment of "misfit toys", young and old, who mirrored some of my own life challenges, I was nudged off the plank into deeper water, to the hidden and buried, where I discovered both decaying bones and treasures. Learning to breathe together under water helped some of us to surface, hands clasped in resilience and determination.
I am grateful for influences great and small, past and present. I am grateful for printed word and huge imaginations, for books bring an endless parade of companions into my world.
One of my first nudges came from teachers who looked past my reticence to speak up in class to see that I had things to say, but preferred to put it on paper, encouraging me to do so.
My life-long love affair with books nudged an appreciation for the power of deep observation, the importance of every word, and the desire to use those words to draw surprising and fresh pictures in the minds of the reader as they transported to new worlds. I have been especially influenced by the prose of Sue Monk Kidd, Kingsolver, and Lamott. Lamott's book, "Bird by Bird" started me on the path of keeping notes about what I saw, felt, heard, tasted, thought, which eventually grew into the tentative confidence to start the assembly process in "Crooked Grow the Trees".
My favorite book, "To Kill a Mockingbird" continues to influence my sense of justice and all that is admirable and devastating in relationships.
Most of all, crossing paths with an assortment of "misfit toys", young and old, who mirrored some of my own life challenges, I was nudged off the plank into deeper water, to the hidden and buried, where I discovered both decaying bones and treasures. Learning to breathe together under water helped some of us to surface, hands clasped in resilience and determination.
I am grateful for influences great and small, past and present. I am grateful for printed word and huge imaginations, for books bring an endless parade of companions into my world.
