Life is full of hardships: horrific world news, death of loved ones, fear, pain, chronic illnesses, insurance, pharmacies, and doctor’s offices that WILL NOT get their act together and JUST GIVE ME MY MEDICINE. 

Sometimes we need a healthy dose of innocence and whimsy to lighten the load, and that is precisely what this post is.

What better place to start than with a nice cup of coffee?

Dear me, we’ll want a cookie to go with it! Or five.

While we sip and snack, let’s peruse my husband’s sketches based on The Drawings of Heinrich Kley, an illustrator who lived from 1863-1952(?). We suspect his work highly influenced Disney illustrators. Can you see it?

We’ll follow up with a movie. Ernest and Celestine is the story of the unlikely friendship between a bear and a mouse. Watching this adorable, sketch-and-watercolor cartoon in its original French (with English subtitles) will make you happy.

Next a bit of stitchery.

Finally, let us read.

The Rescuers was written by Margery Sharp and published in 1959. It is a delightfully charming, funny adventure story, and from a writer’s perspective, has an excellently structured plot.

I recently read Pollyanna Returns by Eleanor H. Porter, written in 1915. {I recommend it to any who enjoys Anne of Green Gables.}

Toxic optimism or optoomuchism (a phrase coined by my mentor Maryrose Wood, author of the series The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place) catches a lot of flack. Of course, one should acknowledge and accept reality and make decisions accordingly, but I do not think that means we should wallow in our woes. 

Reading this book reminded me there are blessings in everything. One of the main characters, Jamie, is lame, and yet, he plays the glad game beautifully. It made me grateful that, even though I can only stand for short periods of time without falling or fainting, I can move around on my own two feet, and I can shake my booty. And I am very glad for that.

I leave you with this quote:

“Mrs. Carew was beginning to realize, too, something of what it must mean to be in spirit and ambition the centre of brave deeds and wonderful adventures, while in reality one was only a crippled boy in a wheelchair.”