Splendid Mayhem: Trashy Read # 2

Welcome To Holland

I am often asked to describe the experience of raising a child with a disability - to try to help people who have not shared that unique experience to understand it, to imagine how it would feel. It's like this......
When you're going to have a baby, it's like planning a fabulous vacation trip - to Italy. You buy a bunch of guide books and make your wonderful plans. The Coliseum. The Michelangelo David. The gondolas in Venice. You may learn some handy phrases in Italian. It's all very exciting.
After months of eager anticipation, the day finally arrives. You pack your bags and off you go. Several hours later, the plane lands. The stewardess comes in and says, "Welcome to Holland."
"Holland?!?" you say. "What do you mean Holland?? I signed up for Italy! I'm supposed to be in Italy. All my life I've dreamed of going to Italy."
But there's been a change in the flight plan. They've landed in Holland and there you must stay.
The important thing is that they haven't taken you to a horrible, disgusting, filthy place, full of pestilence, famine and disease. It's just a different place.
So you must go out and buy new guide books. And you must learn a whole new language. And you will meet a whole new group of people you would never have met.
It's just a different place. It's slower-paced than Italy, less flashy than Italy. But after you've been there for a while and you catch your breath, you look around.... and you begin to notice that Holland has windmills....and Holland has tulips. Holland even has Rembrandts.
But everyone you know is busy coming and going from Italy... and they're all bragging about what a wonderful time they had there. And for the rest of your life, you will say "Yes, that's where I was supposed to go. That's what I had planned."
And the pain of that will never, ever, ever, ever go away... because the loss of that dream is a very very significant loss.
But... if you spend your life mourning the fact that you didn't get to Italy, you may never be free to enjoy the very special, the very lovely things ... about Holland.

Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Trashy Read # 2

I'm working on finishing the 'leaked' 5th book in the Twilight series (it's online if anybody is interested... it's GOOD!) But, my next trashy read is another Chelsea book. I have so much serious-ness in my life- I'm going with total crap to read!!! I 'you-tubed' her and she's got some funny stuff out there! I'll post one here. Just don't allow your kids to watch them... :)

3 comments:

AmandaFebruary 25, 2009 at 9:55 PM
Ohhhh I LOVED Twilight, but am refusing to read it online! It's a tactile thing for me, it needs to be in my hands and I need to physically be able to turn the pages!! Can't wait until it comes out!!!

Love the trashy novels, I'm still recovering from my Twilight high--I finished about a month ago. I think I'm ready to move on, but definitly not to something heavy. I'm going to look into the books you've suggested! Thanks! :)
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* ~ *Jessica* ~ *February 26, 2009 at 1:22 PM
I'm still on my Twilight high as well. I felt horrible for even thinking about reading the other book. I miss the characters. How weird am I?!?!? Definitely gotta follow up Twilight with something light and cheerful!
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AmandaFebruary 26, 2009 at 1:47 PM
LOL--You are not weird. For about 2 weeks after I finished I couldn't stop thinking about Edward and Bella. I felt like I had lost some friends. I still find myself thinking about them, but it's much less frequent now! It was so good!
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