~to know and understand that sometimes our days are not always easy~

One of the personal goals I had for this school year was to read to my students each of the books in the Laura Ingalls Wilder series.  The compilation of those nine bestsellers that were written by Laura to tell of her life in the pioneer times of the mid to late 1800's have always been a favorite of mine. I truly have lost track of the number of times that I have shared her wonderful stories with children over the past 37 years.  Suffice it to say, it's been more than a couple.  They always seem to enjoy hearing them, perhaps in part because the stories tell of a time of so very long ago.  First graders in my classrooms at grade schools back in Haven and Yoder, Kansas  heard them told in the early 1980's and now first graders in Olathe, Colorado are still hearing them in the year 2015.  Two things are for certain with that statement.

Laura's books are "timeless" and there is a good chance that I am getting much older.

We have made it through the first two books and just yesterday began "Little House on the Prairie", the story of the Ingalls family's journey from the big woods of Wisconsin to the prairies of what is now southeastern Kansas.  Perhaps of all the books Laura wrote this particular one will always be my favorite.  I have visited the site, near present day Independence, Kansas,  many times over the years.  When my own children were little, it was a place that they enjoyed going to over and over again.  Although the original house is long gone, a replica was built in its place and there are markers around in the prairie grass that indicate different things that happened in the story.  If you should ever find yourself close by in your travels throughout that part of the Sunflower State, it is most certainly worth the drive to go by there and pay a visit.  Some day I hope to go there once again.

The first chapter of the book tells of Pa's decision to move the family to the great American West and of the arduous journey that would lie ahead of them.  The most touching part of the first chapter for me is where Laura writes of the stark realization that her family is leaving, venturing out into the great unknown.  On the day of their departure all of the aunts, uncles, cousins and grandparents come through the big woods to bid them farewell.  Although she doesn't come right out and say it, her words convey a sense of profound sadness as she writes of Pa's closing of the shutters on their house so it will not have to see them drive away.  Boy did I ever make a "text to self connection" with that part.  The book has a few sad and even scary parts to it but that never stops me from reading it.  I want children to know and understand that sometimes our days are not always easy.  That there are trials and challenges ahead for Laura and for they themselves is a fact of life.  It is a blessing to be able to tell them of a time when things were much more simple and that people survived quite well without the modern conveniences that we all enjoy today.  Laura's books entice her readers to use their imagination, to envision just what it would be like to be living as she did, now so very many years ago.  As far as I am concerned, that very enticement is the earmark of a great piece of literature.  

Two years ago I made my own journey to the Great American West when I left the security and familiarity of my lifelong home on the plains of the very same state that Laura once lived in.  Thankfully I came by car and not by a horse pulled wagon or anything yet it was still an arduous journey in its own right.  I had absolutely no earthly clue in the world of where I was going or the roads that it would take me to get there.  Good thing for me that I came over Monarch Pass that winter morning in January of 2013 in the dark hours of the night.  I would have never had the courage to pass over that more than 11,000' summit in the daylight hours that very first time.  Since then I have passed back and forth over it more times than I can remember anymore but the memory of that first time will forever be with me.

Laura was a pioneer, one that now after several decades of reading her stories, I can identify with in so many ways.  There was excitement of traveling to a place very unknown to both of us yet still a bit of fear and anxiousness of a new life that would prove to be very different for Laura and for myself as well.  I look forward to reading this particular book to "the 21" during  this month of the 154th anniversary of Kansas' statehood and sharing with them a few facts about the state of my birth.  I didn't really plan for the two things to coincide with one another but now it has worked out to do so.  

Laura's time in Kansas would prove to be short before she and her family would have to move on.  My years there would be many.  More than half of a century of many.  She was grateful for her memories that were made there and it would be the world's greatest understatement of all time to say that I too was most thankful for mine.  

Strange how life turned out for two little girls.  One was named Laura Elizabeth and the other Peggy Ann.

                                         The "blood" of two states now runs through me.  
                                        I am alive and well here along the Western Slopes.