constellations

I don't think that I'm particularly visually astute, but when it involves ideas I tend to notice things. Since I haven't returned to thinning my bookshelves yet, they remain stacked and piled on one another and recently a cluster caught my attention:

33 things every girl should know (Bolden)
When I Am An Old Woman I Shall Wear Purple (Sandra Martz, editor)
Jubilee Time (Maria Harris)
Women Who Run With the Wolves (Clarissa Pinkola Estes)

A woman's lifespan has been captured in just those four titles from among the many I have collected related to women's lives. The range from girlhood to crone and every stage in between is what caught my fancy. The first is a collection of writings from famous and not-so-famous women to young women. It includes advice and reminiscences from their own youth.

"...Wolves" has become a classic, using "myths, fairy tales and stories" that put women in touch with their wilder aspects. It's a favorite of mine and lately I've been thinking a lot about the juxtaposition of wild and cultivated. More about that another time. We spend so many years trying to fit in that it can be unsettling when our instinctual side will no longer be denied. For me, she began emerging in my early forties. Maybe it's time for me to revisit "Wolves."

"Jubilee Time" was a gift from a lifelong friend and I have to confess that I still have not read it. Memo to self: put this one ahead of re-reading "Wolves." I understand that it's for women who are entering the second half of their lives. I've passed that milestone, depending on how long I live. Funny how we keep moving the midlife marker believing that we'll live to be 120 or older!

"Purple" is also a favorite of mine. A collection of writings and black-and-white photos, it captures the essence of women I'd love to know. I think that I saw some of their sisters yesterday accompanying their hand-crafted stories in the museum's exhibit of the Quilts of Gee's Bend. There are wisdom, wit and wonder in both the book and those marvelous quilts.

So what's in this constellation for me? Youthful innocence and hope, allowing my wilder side more chances to show her face, exploring the depth and richness of growing older, and accepting whatever the future holds knowing that many have gone before me.

Wonder what else I've forgotten on my bookshelves. Books seem to appear -- or reappear -- when it's time. Like the stars in the night sky, so many of my books are invisible to me until I turn a corner or enter another season in my life.