The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith is one of my all time favorite books.

The author is Scottish and a man, but the main characters are women and he writes their voices wonderfully.

The setting is Botswana in Africa…I’m not even sure that it is currently called Botswana. And normally I would not be interested in a story set in Africa – particulary a “character” story as the climate, the troubles, the dry, dusty picture that comes to my mind is just not an appealing thing. I can’t remember what lead me to look for this book in the first place and I almost did not order it because of the setting…give me mountains and lush evergreens and cool weather and I’m in, but for whatever reason, I did order it and was instantly hooked. I’ve now read the entire series – I think there are 7 books to date. I learn something about life, about me, about people with every book. They make me laugh, cry, ponder and everything in between.

One of my favorite paragraphs at the beginning of the book illustrates how the author gently describes characters and settings:

“If people needed clear guidelines, there was nobody better to do this than Mma Mothibi, who had run the Sunday School at Mochudi for over twelve years. She was a short lady, almost entirely round, who spoke with an exceptionally deep voice. She taught the children hymns, in both Setswana and English and because they learned their singing from her, the children’s choir all sang an octave below everybody else, as if they were frogs”.

That paragraph charms me everytime I read it!

If you decide to try this book, it must be read slowly – savoring the language and rhythm of the setting. It is not the grand prose of “Out of Africa” but the similarity is in a story being woven out of simple life events and the taking of time to think on them. It often brings to my mind, those verses about Mary “But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart.” Luke 2:19 NIV

In a later book from the series, titled “The Full Cupboard of Life”, the main character’s fiance, Mr. JLB Matekoni is dealing with a problem that he decides he must take to Mma Ramotswe, “the lady detective” and main character in the books.

He says to himself after making the decision to discuss the issue with Mma:
“And she would understand, because she always understood and he had never seen her make light of another’s troubles.”

His confidence is well-founded as illustrated by Mma Ramotswe’s thoughts regarding Mr. JLB Matekoni (end of Book 1) after they have become engaged – and she takes this step after many years of being on her own following a disastrous first marriage during which she was beaten so badly that she lost her first and only child and was rendered incapable of having another.

…and now there was somebody to whom she could give love and that, she knew was good; for that is what redeems us, that is what makes our pain and sorrow bearable – this giving of love to others, this showing of the heart.

Something to ponder in my heart…

I’ve hit a bit of a dry spell lately – not so much because I have nothing to say as much as I have a lot of things going on at the moment.  I feel a bit bad because I know that I have some faithful readers who “tune in” every morning and it’s been several days since there was something fresh.  And also, I miss writing! 

In June when I was getting ready to go to Colorado and wanting to put together a more polished trip log than I had for my previous travels, I started looking at the blog format.  I read a LOT of blogs and some were truly scary in content – corny, too “all about me” – generally just not appealing to me.  And the whole blog thing seemed a bit too much one of those things that everyone was doing and I hate the whole “following the crowd” thing.  But the more I looked, the more the blog format seemed to fit what I wanted to do as far as documenting travel and general writing about things going on with me.  So, read some more, picked WordPress for my blog “vehicle” and it didn’t go so well.  I struggled to get WordPress installed on my existing host and with all of the things that needed to be done to leave – I was ready to bail and put up a simple web page.

In the past, friends that I email have said I should write a book – that they enjoyed my writing.  But at the time I was thinking of not pursuing the blog I was given some special encouragement and in addtion to the source, it was the words: “You have a gift, use it.”  We rarely see our own gifts, talents or beauty.  Thank God that others see with both eyes and heart – the beauty that we cannot.  And the second part of that is that we must trust in the people that care for us and believe in what they see in us.

Those words – “you have a gift, use it” carried enormous power.  They were more command than suggestion.  It was strong motivation and things suddenly came together for “From the Front Porch”.  And not only has it been a joy to write, it is a joy to hear from everyone who reads.  Something special has happened to me through writing these entries.  I often start with an idea of where I’m going and find that I end up someplace I did not anticipate – what fun!  It is a grand adventure for me as I learn things about myself that I didn’t know.  I think the real gift is being open to new thoughts and ideas and allowing the writing to happen.  Ultimately it has been an incredible ride so far.   

About a year ago – after getting settled in this house, I made time for a physical.  I’d lived in this area for nearly 13 years at the time and have seen the same G.P. – and even though all doctors are busy, I have been fortunate enough to see a man who makes time to listen to me and also share what’s going on with his family.  So after relating my 7 month motorhome adventure – his comment was “You are one of the few people who has actually done something they really wanted to do”.  Thankfully,  I know another who has, but the point of today’s post is that I often get that kind of reaction to the travelling, my work, my life in general.  And it is often said with some wistfulness or with the tag line “I wish I could do something like that”.

I’d like to say “Hey, wake up and smell the coffee – because you can!”.  I’d like to say “live your life with some passion, spend some time and figure out what you’d really like to do and go and do it!”  I have no special powers, no pot of money – I do have a good imagination, though!  And the truth is, it is the visualization of the “dream” that gets me there and I believe it is the way that those who accomplish goals and realize dreams “make” things happen.  We see in our mind’s eye how we want our life to be.  Visualizing what we want keeps focus, helps weed out the stuff that is not part of the picture and crazy as it might sound – “moves the molecules” so that the vision becomes reality. 

We each have some number of years in this earthly experience.  If you have any faith or spirituality or even a general belief that this is not all there is – do ya really think we were made to play it safe???

It is not an original line(s) and I can’t say it’s totally true but really, can you imagine on your deathbed saying…

“I wish I’d worked more”

“I wish I’d spent less money”

“I wish I’d travelled less”

“I wish I hadn’t loved…”

I bet not !