What Do You Read In The Bathtub?

My library contains books that won’t close tightly because the bottom edge dipped into bath water when I wasn’t looking. My new resolution: read only small paperback books while in the tub. My current favorite: Hundreds and Thousands: Journals of an Artist (1966).

Emily Carr’s journal describes her love of nature, her life with animals, and her struggle to be taken seriously as a painter. Emily is unabashedly honest about her life and because of her frankness, it is surprisingly difficult to stop reading her daily entries.  

This means my bath water often loses its charm. Now in the living room, snuggled up in my cloak, I listen to the rain on the window as I read an entry dated October 11, 1935. It is too moving not to share: 

“The first dismal rain of winter. Summer hanging between life and death. Everything shivering and dripping like the time between death and the funeral. War news dismal, fires sulky. If one were a bear, now, how jolly it would be to take your fat-prepared body into a hollow tree already selected, ball yourself up with your paws over your face, and sink into a peaceful stupor, absorbing your own fat for sustenance without even the pest of selection, chewing or dish-washing.”

Her words comfort, excite, and prepare me for the new season. I hope you enjoy.

Thanks for exploring the mystery – Nicky Mendenhall