From KK’s list of Scintillating Sentences.
And here is one from my list of favorite songs by Robbie Robertson.
A question from home.
I am home. in Florida.
A reader sent this photo from Miami and it has left me speechless for a while. I think about motherhood when I look at it. Then I look at the breasts of what appears to be a child because of its size and what seems to be a breast-less woman holding her, and why do I think it is a woman? Because of the shape of the waist and the hips. And that breastlessness makes me think of St. Agatha. And then there is the size of the feet and I am home., a traveling book, at the feet, of this image of bigness seemingly protecting smallness. And this makes me think of another reader’s comment about how the book is about the extraordinary of the ordinary, though this image is hardly ordinary. I could probably ask someone who knows. Look at it, though, above all, headless. Headless. What happens when we lose our heads? Or when we get out of our heads and decide to live with the body and place less focus on the mind? We each have our own answers to these questions that I like to think about when I look at this image. I am home. is filled with similar questions and occasional attempts to answer them. In this way, it is also about acceptance of things as they are. It can also be a statement about being home anywhere in any way.
And when I look at it, for some reason, this sentence that many readers have liked from I am home. floats into my mind: These three bodies-the one I came from, mine, and the one I gave life to-all connect to one happiness.
I am home. in the Sunday paper.
I am home. in the book.
A reader recently met with me and showed me all the asterisks and dog-eared pages in the book marking the places that moved her most. It was delightful to find that many of the sentences I had struggled with were in that group.
You can probably imagine my pleasure in reading this later: “I am home. is a book about searching and connecting with yourself, with loss, with love, with who you are and who you want to be, through life experiences and change. In I am home., this path is seldom straightforward, much like the author’s discourse, which gently goes back and forth in time in a way that seems almost unconscious, much like our thoughts, and our emotions. In this search for home, the author’s voice comes through as genuine and honest where self-respect and dignity are non-negotiable conditions of this search.
I thoroughly enjoyed I am home. Maili’s writing is uplifting and insightful. It’s inspirational.”
I am home. in Santiago de Compostela, on the Camino.
Un camino is a way and camino is also the first person present for walking in the Spanish language. So to say Camino. is to say I walk. El camino is to say the way.
Camino el camino. is to say I walk the way. What way? There are many.
Following Robert Frost’s adage about how way leads to way is a way to live. The narrator of I am home. lives like this.
I love seeing the book resting with other pilgrims in Santiago de Compostela after a lot of walking. This reader thinks “It’s a great book to accompany a pilgrimage and walking journey because it is a book about the many ways that lead us home. And the camino that leads us there is love.”
I am home. on Praia de Gures.
Reading is sexy. Just do it. In places like this. it’s lovely to watch someone read. “El problema es cuando cojo tu libro, no puedo dejarlo,” this reader told me. In other words, “The problem is that when I pick up your book, I can’t put it down.”
I am home. in Barcelona.
One reader wrote to say, “The sentence I most relate to is: ‘I initially chose Barcelona for how I feel when in it: free and connected to something I cannot name or understand.'”
Have you ever had that feeling about a place? Barcelona is important in I am home. and in Lucy, go see. I am working on a short piece about our love affair, Barcelona’s and mine, and will share it with you soon.
“You write about it beautifully,” I was happy to hear.
Have you been to Barcelona? Come travel with me, and make yourself at home.
Available everywhere books are sold.
I am home. in Jamaica.
“Look what book traveled to Ochos Rios with me! It is so interesting to read about such an adventurous life. Marianne is an inspiration from modeling to writing to translating to teaching. She has seen and learned so much. There’s nothing she can’t do! I finished the book and loved every minute while I was reading it. It’s beautifully written. I cried and I laughed. I love page 136. I’m asking my book club to read this!”
I am home. in Spain.
I am home. in Katy’s #hammock #reading in #santperederibes #catalunya #spain . A perfect hammock read! #books #goodvibes #home #summerreading #beauty #wonder #joy #grief #inspiration #liveyourownlife #vulnerability #strength #life
This reader finds it a great read for starting a new chapter in life. “Enjoying your book, the moments are so real and surreal, like life.”
Marianne Maili 