Words....

I am fond of words.  I like conversation, I love how words can help you "know" someone. I love books, articles, even a well versed text.  I especially love written words and that is generally why I write (or have written in the past.) I read recently that a writer writes because of unsaid words.  I am in a season of unsaid words and a season where the desire to write is strong; the time to write, not so much.

 

Words help me to know people and people seem to like to share their words with me. Sometimes, are these words  just an illusion they want me to see?  Yes, I have lived long enough to know some souls are gifted with just such a way with words.  Even as I see actions, I have often given more chances that I probably should have because of their words. I want to believe the words people use. It is a fault that I listen to words probably as much as I watch actions.  But....still, I want to believe in the words because I want to know people, understand them. 

Being Southern, I believe, gives me a particular love of the world that can be woven by words.  In the South we revere our story-tellers.  We value someone who can entertain us with their words as much as a good drink at a party, if not more. Why do you think there are so many amazing writers who hailed from Southern Roots?  Even those annoying relatives are tolerated, if not regaled, if they have the ability to leave us spell bound with stories of our past, present, and possibly our future.  Culturally, we are a region that loves words, and I am a product of that love.

Geneva, A Memoir by Her Daughter

I was privileged to receive a copy of fellow blogger, Ellen Thompson Shook's first book in the mail a few weeks ago.  Ellen blogs at Scribbler Unfocused and in her 1st book she explores her family history and focuses on her mother, Geneva.  Like many Southern families, Shook's family story is so closely interwoven with food I don't know that you could separate the two.  We in the South, love through food, and along with the family history and lovely vintage family photographs there is quite a collection of recipes that Geneva used.  Some of the recipes are the same ones that I grew up with (as did many children of the South) but revisiting them is always a delight!  

Shook says of her Mother, "Geneva was never the easiest person to get along with.  Certainly, she did not suffer fools gladly.  Many, many times we locked horns, but usually she never stayed mad for very long. The happiest times when I was growing up were spent in the kitchen watching her cook."

One of my favorite parts of Shook's work is the  the description of her  Mother's kitchen.  "The kitchen walls were painted blue and yellow to match the floor -- blue on the bottom and yellow on the top -- with high gloss enamel paint (scrubbable).  We kept the ancient gas stove which you and to light with a match.  That relic even went with us when we moved years later.  We also had a little fridge that came out of Noah's Ark til 1957 when we got a new Hotpoint with a separate freezer on top. In an alcove over next to the pantry, which was behind our kitchen table, resided the old arcola coal burning furnace which kept those radiators sizzling hot and us toasty warm.  our kitchen was the cosiest place imaginable on God's green earth......"  Now, that just makes me want to go back to my grandma's kitchen! 

Find out more about Ellen at: Scribbler Unfocused