It's book club time again over at Silicon Vally Moms blog, and I loved this month's choice, The Possibility of Everything. Hope Edelman wrote about her journey to Belize where she met with healers to help with her child's issues and imaginary friend. The book was wonderfully written, honest and emotional and there was so much I can relate too. My kids are so different, one seems sad so often, takes my irrational ravings about the messy house to heart and ends up working extra hard to clean the house and please his mommy. As much as I appreciate his help, I see myself in this dire need to please and avoid conflict, and I just hope it doesn't take him 35 years to grow out of. My other son could care less about this stuff, but gets way more time outs for his behaviour. I mostly trust my gut that we're dealing with our babies the right way, but it can be tough. The part I could really relate to, though, was the issues with her husband, her role in the family and her feeling like a single mom. There's a passage where she takes her daughter to the city, and gazes longingly at a group of apartments, imagining what it would be like to move there with her daughter, have her own little place, leave all her problems behind. My fantasies too revolve around just walking away from it all, deciding the "for worse" part of those marriage vows are just too much for me. Hope felt like she had to do everything and rarely saw her busy husband, although they were clearly very much in love. My husband and I may take on the opposite roles this year, with me being away on several business trips with lots of late nights in between, while he juggles his stuff and the kids. I can only hope they don't eat Frosted Flakes or In and Out more than once a week. We'll see where that takes us, but sadly Belize won't be in the picture.
Hope had to really step away from her practical side, look at her beliefs and open up to possibilities, to use her title. I want to take inspiration from that, do something out of character, more spiritual and less practical to wake myself up from my funk. I've got two trips to China planned this summer, so perhaps I'll find something there.
I got a free book, but no other compensation or obligation to write this post. Head over to SV Moms to see more posts inspired by The Possibility of Everything.
I loved Hope's writing style, her choice of words and punctuation. It was a beautiful book to read. I related to her description of her marriage too - having one or both partners working around the clock, or investing so much of themselves into their work can be challenging at times!
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