Reading and Life Influences

Those of you who are regular readers of my blog will recall that my dear friend has been suffering from cancer.  Last Thursday night she passed away and her long battle with a very pernicious and cruel disease came to an end.   She taught me so many things these past couple of years but the biggest was that a normal day is a blessing.  She longed to sit in traffic, go to work, put up with people at the office, clean her house, cook dinner, run errands, and most of all to be able to read again.   She used to tell me that she wanted to hear about all of the normal things I did.  I would think I was having a boring day but to her it seemed like heaven.   She made me a better person as I watched her face her illness with bravery and dignity.  She didn't have time for any nonsense so she said what she meant and she meant what she said.  She was funny, a great mimic, kind, beautiful, generous...I could go on and on.  She was a voracious reader, before her disease robbed her of most of her eyesight.  Years and years ago she turned me on to the Vampire Chronicles by Anne Rice.  I would NEVER have picked up a book about vampires if she hadn't recommended them to me.  She told me I would like them and I did.  In the spirit of this book blog I will remember her with a cup of tea in one hand and a book in the other and I will reread some of the many books she recommended to me over the course of this year.  Some I may write about and some I may not.  The memories they evoke may be too painful and raw to share with others. 

I'll be commenting on blogs and attending to this one later this week, as I feel able.   I hope you will all go out and enjoy your life to the fullest.  Just remember when you have a bad day that it is always a good one because you are alive.  To honor my friend I will try to live every day with a smile and remember hers.

Peace,
Kathleen