Ta książka przeleżała na czytelniczym stosiku ponad rok. Gdy świątecznie ucztowałam nad świeżutkim małym smokiem, zachwycając się kreską, co rusz przychodziło mi do głowy zadziwienie faktem, że ona tam tkwi. Przecież ten Autor, ten warsztat, ten styl, więc czemu utknęła? Szybciutko wydobyłam ją z czeluści opatrzonych etykietą:a może nigdy. I natychmiast mi się przypomniało.
Zaczynałam tę książkę kilka razy, odkładając ją zawsze z tego samego powodu. Nie wiem co, ale na większości ilustracji z bohaterami jest coś nie tak, nie przekonują. Tu proporcje, tam coś nieprawdziwego w kształcie oczu czy pyska. Nie wspominając o tym, że dziki wilk nie wygląda nigdy jak zapasiony wielkomiejski owczarek niemiecki. No nie.
A historia? Czytając rok temu na pewno bym się popłakała, ale teraz jako osierocona po prostu ryczałam jak bóbr. W każdej ilustracji udawało mi się wypatrzeć szczegół, który natychmiast uruchamiał kudłate wspomnienia, nie tylko te związane z Heniutką, ale również z wszystkimi małoduńskimi „piesami”, z których każda i każdy byli niesamowitymi psimi osobami.
No i śnieg. Dużo go za oknem, dużo go w książce. Tylko ja w ciepełku. Z przyjemnością wykrawałam ilustracje, na których śnieży i śnieżyć nie przestanie.
I hope that in reading this book you are inspired to follow your own moon, or if you're already following it, not to give up.
•
The Wolf—I miss you. Thank you.
•
[…] maybe we can start to enjoy each day a little more.
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Alone for the first time in her life, Amaya wandered the silent landscape in search of her parents.
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Amaya yelped and tried to run, but another wolf cut her off. And another, and another, until she was surrounded by fierce eyes and bared teeth.
There was no way out.
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‘Are you all right?’ asked the Wolf.
Amaya nodded slowly. ‘You saved me.’
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‘But I don’t know what lies in that direction,’ said Amaya.
‘It would be a journey into the unknown.’
A glint appeared in the Wolf’s eye. ‘That's my favourite kind.’
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‘My form is breaking,’ said the Wolf,
‘but I feel as though something inside me is changing and growing stronger.’
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‘Everything that is important will happen today.’
‘What do you mean?’ asked Amaya.
‘There is no tomorrow,’ said the Wolf,
‘tomorrow—when it matters—will be today.’
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‘It’s very dark in there.’
‘It is our path,’ said the Wolf.
Amaya remembered what he had said about not just following the path, not just accepting it, but embracing it, no matter the hardships.
‘It is,’ said Amaya, walking towards the darkness.
🖇
But the strangest thing was, as she entered the forest, the darkness she had seen from the outside was nowhere to be seen.
Once within the trees she could see everything... and it was wondrous.
‘It was just an illusion,’ said the Wolf.
‘When we bring the light of our presence to something,
there is little we cannot understand.
And as we begin to understand, our fear,
like the darkness, begins to fade.’
🖇
‘The reason the lotus blooms,’ said the Wolf,
‘is because it just keeps going—the little shoot has no idea how deep the pond is, how far it needs to climb or what might be in its way, it just keeps going.
And the fact that it started from a very dark place doesn't stop it.’
🖇
‘So, you really think there's a chance […]?’
asked Amaya.
‘Not if we stop trying.’
‘But what if we're going in the wrong direction?’
‘Perhaps we are, but we are doing what we can based on what we think is best.
If we learn something new, we can walk a new path.
Until then—we should continue to follow the moon.
And don't forget, your mother said, “With all your heart”.
I think she knew what she was talking about.’
🖇
🖇
‘Will we have to go back?’ asked Amaya.
‘Will we be able to find another way?’
🖇
Amaya and the Wolf looked up to see a cat, seated on a rock.
‘Do you always travel so slowly?’ asked the Cat.
‘Yes, we do,’ said Amaya confidently.
‘But as long as we don’t stop, we’ll get where we're going.’
🖇
‘There are times,’ said the Cat,
‘when we have done everything we can do.
Then we must learn to step back and allow the universe to play out in all its unfathomable wonder.’
🖇
🖇
🖇
‘[…] Just because we have lost sight of our goal,
it doesn’t mean we should give up.
There is always the possibility of a new way.’
‘But I don’t want a new way,’ said Amaya.
🖇
🖇
‘The moon has led us exactly where we need to be.
Here.
Now.
Together.
Facing this challenge.’
🖇
‘You know,’ she said to the Wolf, ‘I thought journeys were all about getting somewhere and having a destination, but ours doesn’t have one. […]
‘You still had a goal, Amaya, […] most of our lives are spent doing the travelling, and the arrival is only a tiny part of that journey.
We should do our best to enjoy every part of the adventure.
Maybe we will never get where we want to be, and wouldn’t it be sad if we had not even enjoyed the ride.’
🖇
‘Slow down, look around, breathe, take in the sounds and colours.
Imagine you’d chosen this moment as your destination, not just a point along your journey’.
🖇
‘But I thought you were coming along for me,’ said Amaya.
‘I was,’ said the Wolf,
‘but now I ask you to come along for me.’
🖇
‘We adapt, we change, we find a new way forward.
There is nothing wrong with acknowledging that a path is not leading us where we need to be and choosing a new one.’
🖇
Sometimes it’s simply not possible to try hard and get the result we want.
Imagine digging up a seed to see whether it had grown.
If we’ve watered it, there really is nothing left to do.
🖇
But it’s important to remember, sometimes we are not rewarded, sometimes our struggles and patience and optimism will be for nothing.
But the journey itself, how we did it, and who we did it with, will always live within us.
That’s why we do things with all our heart,
so when it doesn’t work out, at least
we know we put the best of ourselves into the world.
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🖇
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And she realized what the whole journey had been about.
James Norbury, Following the Moon,
Michael Joseph, London 2024.
(wyróżnienie własne)
‘Perhaps no one will like it, Amaya, not even you, and that's okay. That is why we need to take our joy in the creation, not how it turns out. […]’
The Wolf’s own words struck him hard,
and he knew he was rediscovering something he had lost.
🖇
Come, sit and enjoy the world.
🖇
THE END
…and the beginning.
(tamże)
