What was it worth?
 
I really enjoyed watching Billy grow during this story.  I saw him learn about commitments, love, and perseverance.  Billy learned that his word meant something and that his actions must back up his words.  Billy started out with a want and changed it into a plan the moment he started determining how he was going to get those dogs.  As he learned to act on his desire, his desire and determination grew.  He worked very hard for those dogs.  Two years is a long time to keep that desire strong, yet he did.    Billy shared his experiences with his dogs with us.  All the frustration and the achievement.  I marveled at his dedication at cutting down that tree because he promised his dogs he would help them if they treed a coon.    What an amazing amount of character.
 
At the end, I cried for the loss that Billy suffered.  As I sit here I just have to say, "what? what else, don't leave it there."  The idea of the Red Fern is there but did Billy never recover?  Never grow from there?  I want so much for Billy.  The opening of the book shows that he was working and seems to be living alone.  Can't tell how long has passed but I don't want that image it seems so sad.  He has no more dogs, and no family to fill his life.  Where is the rest of the story.  Did Billy go on to accomplish great things?  Did he keep on the Hero Cycle?  He certainly was on the Hero cycle during most of the book, but did he stay on the Hero Cycle?  Did he keep moving towards become a better person with more character?  Was his experiences worth it?  Did he do something to help him heal and grow?
 

My friend Kathy Mellor created the word MentorHeart. As I have been reading Charlotte’s Web this time through I thought of Charlotte and her role. If you remove Charlotte, the story changes. If I remove mentors from my life, the story changes. Mentors are such a huge part of personal growth. Most of my life I did not even know what mentors were but as I look back, I see people that helped me along the way and books that helped me grow. INCREDIBLE books. Books have been a mentor for much of my life and I did not know that. Why do people choose to mentor? Why do some books mentor us while others do not? I can’t answer that but I have been thinking about how to grow my MentorHeart because I want to follow an idea that Charlotte shared: “By helping you, perhaps I was trying to lift up my life a trifle.”

Audrey shared this link:  http://www.theimaginativeconservative.org/2015/08/timeless-essays-when-books-die-all-at-once.html

A very interesting read about how are society has changed its view of the printed word.

What do you do when the rug is pulled out from under you?

When the things that you hoped for are not going to happen, what do you do? What do you do when you are forced to see that the ideas that you believed in and had faith in are wrong. That your paradigm is wrong? From this book we see two reactions. Once gave up hope in all he knew and felt he could not live another moment – he quite. Another kept struggling and fighting to survive with hope, and yet when he gave up hope he died too. To have hope is what keeps us going when life and situations turns miserable for us. Finding ways to keep hope will help us get through the challenges we face.

How do I develop better character?

In the story Jane Eyre, Jane develops her character through her experiences, relationships, and religion just as I do.  In Jane’s case she believe that she had no family, no help in the world.  In reading the story we see that she had several people who helped her learn and develop.  As I read through this, I started to look at how my experiences helped me develop my character and also how I would like to develop my character.  One of the great things about reading great books is that I can look at myself each time I finish a book and ask myself how I can use this book to change me.  I can make deliberate choices to help me become the person that I would like to be.

Where are my doors?

Reading this book has reminded me how often in my life a door has appeared in a wall that I thought surrounded me.  When I look at my thoughts of what I wanted to be as a teen I find it fascinating that I have not done most of the things that are on my list because of situations that stood in my way.  For a long period of my life I just sat next to the wall so to speak – I did not look for a door and had no hope of change.  I just stewed.  And the more I stewed the less real I became.  I started to lose the character traits that I have valued about myself.  I actually had to have someone show me the window for me to recognize it and see it but after that I began to grow again as a person.  Finding the Door in the Wall helped set me free, and now I know that whenever there is a wall placed before me, that there is a way to get through that wall.