tongue (un)tied
“Cah-mawhhhhhn! With me nah-wah!” Thalia wiggles her tongue back and forth. “Five times fast!”
Nia peers over her readers.
“Pink paint puckers page, pink paint puckers page, pink paint puckers page, pihhh-n-k —”
Nia returns to E.B. White’s classic — joining Fern, Wilbur, and Charlotte in the barnyard.
Filled with satisfaction, Calliope slips out of the studio to top off her mug.
This is their life… and she loves it.
I am impelled, not to squeak like a grateful and apologetic mouse, but to roar like a lion out of pride in my profession.
~John Steinbeck
A note from LoveLetterist:
This morning, when I read about the tree made of books (linked under today's image), I was struck by an awareness that I have written things... things with the potential to change lives.
So many authors have changed mine... coaxing blood to flow through a mind that's sometimes as hard as rock.
Whether one likes or hates them... my purpose here in this world is to nudge feeling, awareness, and thought through my stories.
This is no longer in question.
I can't think of anything I'd like to do more.
What is one story that colors how you see the world?
While I first considered cacophony to describe this setting, I reconsidered and let myself feel the warmth from the studio. And plenty there is, owing in no small way to your conscious decision to follow a path of loving kindness toward others.
When I read Steinbeck’s quote I suddenly remembered a movie with Peter Sellers titled “The Mouse That Roared.” From 1959. I might seek it out, but I’m certain no actual mice roared. 😊
Might it be that someday someone will buy the copy of Poise with all the drawings? Or might you stash it in the stacks of a large library (like a stolen Rembrandt) to be found one day and auctioned off by Sotheby’s? I believe your plan will reveal itself some day soon.