Crevices

Sev­er­al years ago I had a chance to inter­view Amy Krouse Rosen­thal. I knew (and loved) her sweet and clever pic­ture books. I had no idea about all of the oth­er “projects” she had going until I googled her in prepa­ra­tion for our con­ver­sa­tion.  There are many projects–each and every one is utter­ly fas­ci­nat­ing. I fell quick­ly in love with The Beck­on­ing of Love­ly project, in particular.

I watched her at an event with a bunch of kids at a local bookstore–I loved how real she was with them–before we sat down for an inter­view. I remem­ber two things from our con­ver­sa­tion (besides the fact that she qui­et­ly noticed every­thing going on around us.)

#1) She told me about her house, built around a three sto­ry stair­case made of bookshelves.

#2) She talked about writ­ing and cre­at­ing in the “crevices of life.”

Oh, how that word “crevices” spoke to me.…I’ve worked in what I call the “nooks and cran­nies” of life ever since hav­ing kids. But crevices–that was a dif­fer­ent word entire­ly. Crevices are tight spaces between big things– places you have to squeeze into. Crevices require effort to enter. Crevices involve an inten­tion to explore. I’ve nev­er for­got­ten how she used that word–such a wise writer­ly woman she was.

I’m grate­ful for Amy Krouse Rosen­thal’s books, her spir­it, and the encour­age­ment she gave to the world to notice and cul­ti­vate con­nec­tions, believe in mag­ic, and beck­on love­li­ness. My heart is with her beau­ti­ful fam­i­ly in this raw time of grief.