I Highly Recommend This Book

I love, love, love this book!  It is "The Tale of Despereaux being the story of a mouse, a princess, some soup, and a spool of thread" by Kate DiCamillo.  It may be my new favorite (one of them).  I've been reading it with Austin, and yesterday, both Paige and Macy went down for a nap, so we finished it.  It is such a quirky little story, and it may sound so strange if I even tried to explain it.  It is a children's book, and is the 2006 Newberry Award Winner.  I absolutely love the writing style.  I think Kate DiCamillo is brilliant.  She has a way of making it seem like she is telling this little fairy tale ("Stories are light"), and yet she weaves in the great truths of life and happiness.  It is a book about light and darkness in the truest sense, but at it's core are lessons about love, hope, and forgiveness.  

My favorite part is when she explains that forgiveness is something that one must do to "save [our] own heart."  She says that forgiveness is like love and hope..."a ridiculous, wonderful, powerful thing."  This is the commentary after Despereaux (a mouse) forgives his father:  "And he said those words (I forgive you) because he sensed that it was the only way to save his own heart, to stop it from breaking in two.  Despereaux, reader, spoke those words to save himself."  

We also read a chapter entitled "No Choice" yesterday.  

"It's impossible," he said to the darkness.  "I can't do it."

He stood very still.  I'll go back," he said.  But he didn't move.  "I have to go back."  He took a step backward.  "But I can't go back.  I don't have a choice.  I have no choice."  

He took one step forward.  And then another.

"No choice," his heart beat out to him as he went down the stairs, "no choice, no choice, no choice."

I didn't talk to Austin much about the "lessons" in the book.  I shove too much morality down him as it is.  But for some reason, this one just really touched me.  I put the book down and said, "It is so true.  There are some things in life that just seem too big, too impossible, but we just have to do them anyway."  Austin said, "Like chores?"  I told him that it was something a little different.  He said, "Oh, I know...Like climbing a mountain?"  I started to explain to him that most of the difficult things we are asked to do in this life aren't physical.  I told him about my friend Michelle whose little boy fell out of a window and he died and they had to have a funeral for him and they had to bury him and how it seems almost impossible for her to live her life without her little boy but she has no choice.  I don't know what came over me, but I started crying (I do that a lot).  In reality, I should do it a whole lot more!  Not sobbing uncontrollably, but I just get choked up and tears run down my face.  My kids listen so intently when I'm crying, especially Austin (maybe it's the man in him that tells him to just be there for a woman when she is emotional).  

Last week, I had someone explain the Atonement to me in a different way than I've ever heard.  He was trying to explain that I can't take on other people's problems.  It is actually very selfish of me to do this.  The only person who can do that is Christ.  Then he said, "Our own problems are enough.  We don't need other people's problems on top of our own."  My dad said something similar a few years ago.  He said, "Life will provide trials; you don't have to go looking for them."  

Maybe I'm being overly-dramatic about a story where the mouse is the hero and a princess named "Pea" is the heroine.  However, I often look at my kids and wonder what obstacles life will throw at them.  What will they have to do that seems "impossible" and yet they have no choice?  What will they have to forgive?  What will teach them how to love and hope?  What will they have to turn over to Christ?