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Every winter as the temperature gets lower and the days shorter,
I find myself drawn to rereading the
Little House on the Prairie
series by Laura Ingalls Wilder. I don't know why this ritual is as
necessary as breathing to me — it's not like there's a plot twist I
may have overlooked last winter; it's not like I didn't read them
thoroughly enough in my childhood (I broke the bindings in every
one of the eight books); and it's not like I don't have each book
virtually memorized. So why do I find myself every January immersed
in the travels of the Ingalls/Wilder families? Ask the thirty-five
million readers that have kept the 'Little House' books in print
since their publication in the 1930s. All over the world children
and adults alike devoured these books, and have remained intrigued
by the extraordinary woman who wrote them. However, this winter I
found myself not quite satisfied with a mere rereading (I even broke
out my old, tattered copies of
West from Home,
On the Way Home,
and Donald Zochert's
Laura: The Life of Laura Ingalls Wilder). I wanted more insight into Laura; to learn more from her amazing life that spanned a century, and more about her life after the era covered in the 'Little House' books.
I was elated to find A Little House Sampler on the shelves of Barnes and Noble. This collection of stories, essays and memoirs compiled by William Anderson was the perfect panacea to my cravings. While the 'Sampler' prints works by both Laura and her daughter, Rose Wilder Lane (whom I was pleasantly surprised to learn was an accomplished writer in her own right), it was Laura to whom I paid the most attention. How could I not? I found I had so much more to learn from her; that as she grew older, she became quite at peace with herself and was able to articulate what she had learned from life into wise perspective. I'm 24 years old, and I'm steeped in debt (this is relevant, I swear). In order to pay the rent, the college loans, and keep myself healthy, I work a full-time job and take on any freelance job I can get my hands on (I'm hosting three right now). Inevitably, burn-out starts to creep in as I get less and less sleep, and I have fewer hours to do the things I like to do, like read, write and go out. I was on the verge of quitting freelance and selling my car when I read this quote in the 'Sampler,' originally published in the Missouri Ruralist in 1919.
'Why should we need extra time in which to enjoy ourselves? If we expect to enjoy our life we will have to learn to be joyful in all of it, not just at stated intervals, when we get time, or when we have nothing else to do. It may be well that it is not our work that is so hard for us as the dread of it and our often expressed hatred of it. Perhaps it is our spirit and attitudes towards life and its conditions that are giving us trouble, instead of shortage of time. A feeling of pleasure in a task seems to shorten in wonderfully and it makes a great difference with the day's work if we get enjoyment from it instead of looking for all our pleasure altogether apart from it.' Honestly, I haven't quite been the same after reading that. I highly recommend this book. We all have something to learn from Laura, either in her prized 'Little House' books, her essays and memoirs, or just from sharing in the adventures of pioneer family.
—gayle 24Jan99 |