This was a great book with a slow beginning, but the book gained momentum quickly and I was easily hooked. Laura Kilmartin identifies with all of us and our "to do" lists for life. It seems as though we, especially women, have a need to fulfill certain goals by milestone ages in our life...At twenty, they aren't so important. By thirty, the list begins to have more significance and by forty, we begin to measure our identity and even worth by how much of the "list" we have managed to accomplish.
Unfortunately, "to do" lists concerning life accomplishments are not as easily planned or accomplished as those we make on a Saturday morning. It's much easier to plan a Saturday morning's chores - buy groceries, clean the laundry room, send Aunt Edith her birthday card and watch a good movie than larger goals - be married and happy by thirty, be a partner in a law firm by thirty, have book published by thirty - and so on.
In this book, the main character is charming as she describes her 29th year month by month. She has a list that she has laminated that remains on her refrigerator as a reminder of the things that she needs to accomplish but hasn't by her 30th birthday. All I could do was think of my own list and the resolutions that I make, year after year, that go without being accomplished.
The beauty of this book is that, as she faces her own unaccomplished goals, she realizes that she has many other wonderful things that have happened in the meantime that she wasn't really paying attention to. Relating her experiences to my own, as I would hope most readers do, you begin to realize that while you are making plans, other wonderful things are happening that might replace those goals with even better accomplishments.
The book ends with her realization that her superficial goals of things like worrying about thinner thighs could wait while she actually enjoyed the things in her life, like her great boyfriend, her best friend, her job and the future prospects and the various other amazing things in her life. The greater message for me was that, while I face the inevitable 50 which has crept up so quickly, I have 50 great years of amazing things that have happened while I've measured my success in life on the things that I may not have accomplished. Don't get me wrong - my list still stays on the fridge, but I only glance at it occasionally. I smile, and then I lock the front door and begin my amazing day.
While the writing was at times hard to stay with, and there were scenes that were clearly "space fillers", the author shared a great message that I won't soon forget.
Four out of five stars for me:)
No comments:
Post a Comment