This I Believe

There's a new feature on NPR called This I Believe, modeled after a 1951 Edward R. Murrow project of the same name in which your average Joe (and Jane) expressed his/her beliefs. NPR has resurrected this on air essay, starting off with a piece by Isabel Allende that I really connected with. She talks about losing her daughter and how it focused her attention on what was really essential in her life. "You only have what you give. It's by spending yourself that you become rich," she says. The catalyst of losing a child, an almost unimaginable loss, gives way to the realization that the point in giving is not to get back. She gives her love, never really knowing if or how it is received, but the giving itself is what changes her.

This made me think about my passion for YA lit, and getting my book out again to work on. I've been playing with the idea lately. It's been two years since I finished it as a thesis and put it away. It's about loss, and I realize here I am writing a blog about loss' counterpart, "finding" Jimmy. It was too hard to think about working on it after losing Miranda. But maybe I'm ready to get back at it. I've kept my toes in the water, judging YA for the Minnesota Book Awards last year, and being a selector again this year in that same category. And then I just met someone who writes YA as well. Coincidence? I think not. Without getting too New Agey about it, maybe the universe it nudging me back to working on the book and sending it out into the world. Or maybe I'm just subconciously looking for reasons to work on it again. Same difference.