DreamCatchers retreat 2013

March 15-17.  Tenkiller Lake.  Sixshooter Resort.  Cabin 5.  Four of the most wonderful gracious women I have ever know.  Traditions started long ago.  Reading. Conversing.  Eating.  Laughing.  Smoking.  Cleansing.  A few tears.  More laughs.  A very warm feeling deep in my heart.  As I left to begin my travels home I made the decision to stop by the state park, which I did, and to drive over the dam, which I did.  Both made me smile.  I also had three hours to reflect on the weekend.  Once again I felt refreshed and renewed.  My heart was warm and my soul was smiling for the first time in a long time.  This group of women are a big part of who I am and when I do not connect with him I lose a part of myself.  I made a vow to myself not to miss another retreat no matter what company or organization  NEEDS me.  At my age, if someone fires me, SO WHAT!  That makes me laugh.  I’ve never been fired in my life.  Maybe it would be good for me.  Who knows?  I do know that you four ladies hold a very special place in my heart and I always, ALWAYS, have an amazing time when I am in your presence.  Thank you.  Thank you for your friendship, thank you for trusting me with your good times, your joys, your bad times and your sorrows.   Thank you for being you.  Each and every one of you.

In closing…

On Friendship
 Kahlil Gibran

Your friend is your needs answered. He is your field which you sow with love and reap with thanksgiving.  And he is your board and your fireside. For you come to him with your hunger, and you seek him for peace.  When your friend speaks his mind you fear not the “nay” in your own mind, nor do you withhold the “ay.”  And when he is silent your heart ceases not to listen to his heart;  For without words, in friendship, all thoughts, all desires, all expectations are born and shared, with joy that is unacclaimed.  When you part from your friend, you grieve not;  For that which you love most in him may be clearer in his absence, as the mountain to the climber is clearer from the plain. And let there be no purpose in friendship save the deepening of the spirit.  For love that seeks aught but the disclosure of its own mystery is not love but a net cast forth: and only the unprofitable is caught.  

And let your best be for your friend.  If he must know the ebb of your tide, let him know its flood also.  For what is your friend that you should seek him with hours to kill?
Seek him always with hours to live.  For it is his to fill your need, but not your emptiness.
And in the sweetness of friendship let there be laughter, and sharing of pleasures.
For in the dew of little things the heart finds its morning and is refreshed.  

The Feast of the Goat by Mario Vargas Llosa

Well, after the “phoned in” bookgroup I have decided that it is much better in person.  That is my review of attendance via cellular phone.  🙂  I didn’t feel as connected and I think it shortened the discussion because it became so disjointed at times due to the constraints of phone signals. 

After reading this book, discussing it and then letting it simmer on the back burner of my brain for a couple of days, I have a few thoughts.  I remain steadfast in my dislike of the author’s style and the depth he felt he needed to go to in order to shock us with these atrocities of the history of the Dominican Republic. 

One thing I think comes to mind in our discussion was that someone commented they thought that he would do much worse things to Urania.  I’m not sure how much worse it could have been.  Perhaps physically he did not torture her, we knew he didn’t kill her because she was telling the story (at least some of the time), but he did rape her.  It does not matter what instrument is used, when you are violated for the first time – and at 14 I cannot imagine – it is frightening, painful and traumatic.  In this instance I would think the emotional trauma was immense, which I think is the statement the author was making by keeping her from having relationships with men.

I do concede however, that this is a fairly accurate and honest account of what happened.  In conceding that, I have to say that I am glad that I pushed myself to finish the book, even though I could have told you the ending before I had read one-third of the book.  Because to do anything else would be contrary to who I am.  I am that person who has and forever will be shouting from the rooftops that if we do not study and acknowledge our history we are destined to repeat it.  I have been pondering this book and searching my heart and mind for the reasons I disliked it so much.  First I thought perhaps it was because I felt no connection to the people, that I felt no involvement (although I still think the CIA was probably more involved that this book credits them).  However, when we read about the Perons in Argentina, when we have read about Hitler and other horrible dictators I have had that anger and indignation rise up in my spirit and I wanted to sing the song for those people lest they be forgotten and lest future people rise up and follow another monster into the fray.  So what is different about this book?  Ahhhh, perhaps it is not the book, but the reader.  Since my breakdown a couple of years ago, I have had a hard time dealing with negativity in any manner and I’m not sure I was even aware until I sat down to write about this book that it left me feeling uneasy, nervous and maybe a bit depressed.  I haven’t slept well the last two nights, so I think perhaps while I did not enjoy this book and probably wouldn’t recommend it, it made a deep impression on me and I think I am not quite finished with it.

What to Read Next? (Kathy)

So, I have been thinking about what we should discuss first on our blog and I believe as there are only two more books on our list, we should use this forum to put some ideas out there.  I have been doing some research and have come up with a couple of suggestions and have given a brief synopsis of each.  I will edit this post as I find more.  If you would each suggest some books, we could all have a chance to know a little about each book prior to making our choices.  In order to keep the “conversation” together, it would be best if you posted as a comment to this post.  We will have some trial and error with this blog, but I feel certain that it will be a great avenue with which to expand and continue to grow our book group.  So here is what I have to offer:

Room by Emma Donoghue.  (fiction)

To five-year-old Jack, Room is the entire world. It is where he was born and grew up; it’s where he lives with his Ma as they learn and read and eat and sleep and play. At night, his Ma shuts him safely in the wardrobe, where he is meant to be asleep when Old Nick visits.   Room is home to Jack, but to Ma, it is the prison where Old Nick has held her captive for seven years. Through determination, ingenuity, and fierce motherly love, Ma has created a life for Jack. But she knows it’s not enough…not for her or for him. She devises a bold escape plan, one that relies on her young son’s bravery and a lot of luck. What she does not realize is just how unprepared she is for the plan to actually work.  Told entirely in the language of the energetic, pragmatic five-year-old Jack, Room is a celebration of resilience and the limitless bond between parent and child, a brilliantly executed novel about what it means to journey from one world to another.

Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes and Edith Grossman:  (classics)

Edith Grossman’s translation of Don Quixote has quickly become a favorite, lauded by academics and common readers alike. Don’t fail to check this out, the world’s first modern novel.
Edith Grossman actually makes it easy for you, O frazzled reader, because she has produced the most agreeable Don Quixote ever….Don Quixote, famously, is the first major work of Western literature to take ordinary human life for its subject — specifically, a life that is replete with accidents, fiascoes, and indignities — and make it over into something luminous with meaning. It does so without pomp or sententiousness — it’s the friendliest and least formal of all the Great Books — yet will overwhelm you, in the end, with its moral and imaginative splendor.”

Watership Down by Richard Adams:  (Fiction)

 

One of the most acclaimed, best-loved novels of the 20th century, here is the remarkable epic adventure of courage and survival, as a hardy band of rabbits flee the destruction of their fragile community to face overwhelming adversity in pursuit of a glorious dream called “home”.

 

Eden’s Outcasts: The Story of Louisa May Alcott and Her Father by John Matteson: (biography)

 

Louisa May Alcott is known universally. Yet during Louisa’s youth, the famous Alcott was her father, Bronson—an eminent teacher and a friend of Emerson and Thoreau. He desired perfection, for the world and from his family. Louisa challenged him with her mercurial moods and yearnings for money and fame. The other prize she deeply coveted—her father’s understanding—seemed hardest to win. This story of Bronson and Louisa’s tense yet loving relationship adds dimensions to Louisa’s life, her work, and the relationships of fathers and daughters.

 

Legacy of Ashes: The History of The CIA by Tim Weiner (non-fiction)

 

Now Pulitzer Prize��“winning author Tim Weiner offers the first definitive history of the CIA — and everything is on the record. Legacy of Ashes is based on more than 50,000 documents, primarily from the archives of the CIA itself, and hundreds of interviews with CIA veterans, including ten Directors of Central Intelligence. It takes the CIA from its creation after World War II, through its battles in the cold war and the war on terror, to its near-collapse after 9/ll.

 

The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway (classic)

 

I KNOW, BUT WE NEED TO READ HEMINGWAY!!!!

 

The tragic yet triumphant story of an Old Cuban fisherman and his supreme ordeal – a relentless, agonizing battle with a giant marlin far out in the Gulf Stream.  One of Hemingway’s finest creations, this short novel was given special recognition in the citation accompanying the author’s Nobel Price for Literature in 1954.

     

 

Hello Ladies! Welcome to our blogsite!

You asked for it, you got it!  The DreamCatchers blog.  This is still a work in progress, but in order for it to be complete, I need your assistance!  My idea is that this posting section will be reserved for posts exclusively about book group!  I have set up tabs at the top for each of us to have a personal page where we can post our personal news and share our families, jobs, pets, friends…. whatever you wish to share.  I have kicked it off with a formal introduction to my husband.  What I need for each of you to do is look at the top of this page.  See where it says My Blog with an arrow?  Hover over My Blog or click on that arrow and bring up the drop down menu.  The first item on the menu is Dashboard.  Click on that.  This will take you to the dashboard.  On the left side of that page are many menus.  Scroll down until you see “Pages”  Hover over that until you see the arrow and click on the arrow.  You will get a drop down menu again.  Click on “Pages” in the drop down.  On the screen that comes up you will see your name.  Hover with the mouse over your name and you will see options under your name.  Click “edit” and a new page will come up.  Make your first personal post!  I can’t wait to see what everyone has to say!

There is much more to come…. so be patient with me!