Eat, Read, and Be Mommy

Not many authors can narrate their own audiobooks well, in my opinion–there’s a reason that professional narrators exist. Even fewer authors can narrate their own fiction well; Padma Venkatraman, however, is one of them. I finished listening to her heartbreakingly beautiful The Bridge Home yesterday, and its balance between profound grief and fierce, hopeful love is nigh perfect. Viji’s determination to care for her sister Rukku is well matched with the courage and kindness she finds in Arul and Muthu, and the family they form is every bit as real as the more conventional kind I was born into. And Venkatraman’s deft portrayal of the plight of India’s millions of homeless children is a more eloquent plea for all of us to do what we can, for whom we can, than just about any other I can think of; after all, opportunities to help those with disabilities or those suffering from abuse or extreme poverty are all around us. Do yourself a favor and read this book.

On the home front, it was a crazy week. I chaperoned a field trip to Red Butte Garden on Thursday and the kids and I took my visiting parents to Subway for dinner (conveniently appealing to all concerned and located en route to my son’s flag football practice); Friday morning I spent at the ER with my hubby, getting him scans to try and figure out his abdominal pain, and Friday afternoon saw its usual collection of piano, weekend planning, and the necessities of feeding people; Saturday my parents came for a Mother’s Day lunch-turned-linner; Sunday saw us at our ward’s meetings before heading to Clearfield to hear my nephew speak about his mission; and today I took two kids to therapy, faced Walmart on an empty stomach, and braved my allergies to take my younger girls to piano lessons. (If I didn’t like cats it would be easier to set my boundaries and keep my distance during their lessons, but I’m solidly a cat person.) Life is only going to get busier until school gets out on the 24th, but at least I start getting more sleep afterwards, right?

In the meantime, Padma Venkatraman’s compassionate, musical voice yet lingers in my head, and I’m grateful–both for the good books in this world and the many amazing women in my life.