The Sheila Variations

From the mailbox

I feel like tooting my own horn right now. I want to share with you two random emails I have received from total strangers - these are not regular commenters, or even people who read my blog regularly. It appears that somehow they have tripped over certain posts I wrote ... and got sucked in. It is stuff like this that make blogging one of the most rewarding and cool and ... life-affirming ... projects I have ever taken on.

People write me emails like THIS??? What? It is an awesome privilege. I'm doing my thing here. I do it because I love to write, and blogging is a fun hobby.

So to actually have people come across certain posts ... and then take the time to write me letters ... makes me feel all proud and humble at the same time.

Here is an email I received just the other day:

I just read 74 facts and a Lie. I didn't see #5 coming, but when it hit me... oh god the pain, I already knew how it ended. I feel like I've been kicked in the stomach (again). I'll never stop asking myself why.

That was it. That was the whole email. A total stranger feeling "kicked in the stomach" over something that happened to ME. Extraordinary. I know I've felt the same way with other bloggers and the way they write ... I get involved in their stories ... I don't NEED to know them ... but it's still amazing when it happens.

74 Facts and One Lie is here.

And here - in its unedited version - is my #1 favorite email I have ever received. I cannot even explain to you how WIDE my smile was as I read her words.

Brief background: i wrote this post about finally tracking down one of my favorite childhood books. I had remembered it as having the title "Bimulous Night" - which turns out was incorrect - and that's why it never came up in any of my searches. But now - because of that one post - I cannot even tell you how proud I am that I am now number 1 on Google for "bimulous night" - so anyone else out there who might be yearning to find that book, and only can remember the words "on a bimulous night" ... will now be able to track it down.

Through such teeny steps, the world becomes a better place.

Anyway. Read this email. I still get a lump in my throat when I read it:

ohmygod. i work at a preschool, and when i came in this morning, there were watercolor paintings set out to dry, so i asked one of my co-workers about the project, and she began, "oh, yesterday we read this book about a bimulous night, so - "and i interrupted with "OHMYGOD! A BIMULOUS NIGHT WHEN THE SKY IS LIKE LACE?!" and she said yes, and i was such a babbling idiot - "and something about pineapple?? and orange??" she kinda laughed at me, and gestured towards the book corner. "it's in that basket. go see."

when i saw the book and picked it up, my breath hitched. my heart sped up. i was literally shaking... wow, holding it in my hands after ALL THESE YEARS... it was so magic. i read it, slowly, cover to cover, twice, grinning in wonder and disbelief. it was such an amazing feeling to reconnect with that book after all this time. my hazy memories - of the feeling of magic and joy - have always been mere wispy tendrils that teased me, made me wonder if i was losing my mind. reading "when the sky is like lace" again today solidified and magnified the memories and feelings, as warm and real as a hug.

of course, i had to read the book to the kids several times today, whenever any of them would listen, and sometimes even when they wouldn't. :) even when the kids wandered off, i stayed to finish the book! and when a teacher from another room came in, i even roped her into reading the book, and sat and listened more intently than the kids! oh, i just felt 7 years old again!!

and now i am dying to have a bimulous night so i can make spaghetti and pineapple sauce and wear no orange and feel the velvet-soft grass under my bare feet and sing about how katydidn't and revel in the splendid-strangeness of the plum-purple and dance in the moonlight and stay up all night long!!

during my lunch break today, i rushed home, found the book on amazon, and ordered it! i can't wait to have my very own copy! i may even make color copies of the illustrations to hang them on my wall!

Thanks, strangers, for taking the time to send me emails ... and make my day.

Posted by sheila