Several years ago a friend recommended I read "A Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls. It went on my wish list but I never seemed to make it a priority. This year, as I started the "Empty Shelf Challenge", I also wanted to try and go back through my wish list and read recommended books as well as some of the classics. As I read the Glass Castle, I found myself wondering, why I waited so long to read it!
The author shares her life story in a way that touches every fiber of your body and makes the reader sit up and evaluate what it means to overcome. The amazing part is, she does it with humor and a sense of purpose that in spite of her life circumstances, you are drawn in not with anger but with compassion.
Ms. Walls grew up in what we would now label a dysfunctional family; but at the time, it was all she knew. The extreme poverty did not define her, nor did her alcoholic father, or challenged mother, instead, she used each circumstance to build her own strength and character. Her vivid descriptions, place the reader in her "home" in the desert, or her "home" in West Virginia. Whether she is baking in the Arizona heat or freezing in the West Virginia weather, she recognizes her value and challenges herself, her siblings, and yes, her parents to be over-comers.
As I look back on my own childhood, I recognize that each of us are shaped by the circumstances of our growing up years but we are also each made stronger through whatever adventure we are thrust into. Ms. Walls allowed me to see that my past, whether 40, 30, 20, 10, or 5 years ago shapes who I am but becoming who I am is defined everyday. As I fill my shelf this year, in addition to making sure the shelf doesn't remain empty. I want to clear off the shelf of the clutter that isn't making room for more. I want the shelf to be full of a new past-one that labels me just as the author demonstrates; full of unconditional love.
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