Open books

Although I have a few topics I’m ready to blog about, I’ve not posted lately because I’m busy reading Split at the Root in German! It never ceases to amaze me how Universe works. There was a time when that language was my primary so I knew the difference between “deren” and “dessen.” That’s no longer the case, and I am sure other linguistic things have also fallen by the wayside. Should have made a greater effort to keep the fluency up. But I didn’t need to, which is why.

In brief: Maria, a dear German friend, offered to prepare a German Version of my book for me. Universe allowed for situations in her busy life for her to find time and focus to get the work done in absolute record time. She’d need a second reader she said. I am the second reader, I answered. That’s turning out not to be so easy. And then Edda, a friend from the days in the language academy and a well known international translator, offered to work on the final draft. She had started originally, but due to personal misfortunes was unable to continue. All I can say at this point is: Split in German is going to be a really good book. And that is a humble opinion.

Seeing my story spelled out in a language I clearly command, is truly beyond amazing. But what is more amazing is having a say in the form certain things – emotions and humor particularly – are expressed. I can give the story my own voice. There are the passages I worked on long and hard, and over years edited into a clear presentation of situations that the reader can interpret to their own understanding and emotional experience. The clarity of the emotional content in Split is what makes it universally accessible. Humor, for instance, does not always translate, and I have quite a bit of it in the story. I tried to work it in so the reader can look up here and there and chuckle. A few days ago, an adult adoptee in Australia, who is currently reading Split, messaged me the following: “Still getting through the book. Normally, I’ll read books within days, but this one… This one has made me so uncomfortable I’ve had to put it away many times. There’s too much in there that triggers emotions in me… but then… but then, I come across some flashes of your off-beat humour. ‘Kneetrembler!!’ Bwahahahahahahaha, I haven’t heard that since I left the UK – and it was mostly said by working-class northeners!”  ~  I found ‘kneetrembler’ in Frank McCourt‘s book Angela’s Ashes. At the time I laughed so hard and so long I thought I’d pop a rib. Every time I thought of it I burst out roaring. Mc Court was Irish and grew up among the working class. Imagine the pleasure to find, after so many years, someone who placed the term precisely where it had come from!

I feel blessed over and over again at finding the enormous support from old and new friends. Said support comes to my doorstep completely unexpected and self-less; it’s extraordinary generous in proportion, and arrives at a time I need it most. Such splendid serendipity heralds Beyond… from Spirits I knew in previous lifetimes. At this point, in this lifetime we are spread far out: Africa, Germany, Mexico. Odd, too, that they are in the three continents that form part of my complex identity. Now tell me, is that not weird?

Time to read more German. All the while feeling blessed and grateful as never before.