by

Anne Michael

Seasoned Lightly is on hiatus for a short time when Anne Michael, who is taking a break, will return to BiblioBuffet. In the meantime, we invite you to revisit some of her early pieces.

It’s a whole new year! It is so exciting. I feel as though I’ve been given a ticket to go somewhere new and different if I choose or just be surprised at what follows in the ensuing days and months.

I don’t usually make New Year’s resolutions. I cannot see the need. I always do what I need to do and try to always do the things that are right to do anyway. I am not unhappy inside myself. I am as comfortable with my own company as I am with that of another. In times past, when I did make resolutions, I found that they were based on what other people thought I should change about me. It was a game that made me feel confined rather than free and unfettered. This year, though, I did make one. I resolved to laugh more.

Interestingly, some people I’ve met believed that I do not take things seriously. They arrived at that conclusion because I tend to find most things funny. I love the quirky, the weird and the unusual. I adore the sound of unabashed laughter that can bring tears to my eyes so exquisitely and richly beautiful it is. Such a thing is healing.

The truth is who I am lies in the fact that I do take everything seriously, perhaps too seriously. Sometimes I feel as though my heart or head will explode like a Roman candle on Independence Day with the intensity and power of what goes on in my core. Managing such a range of volcanic thought or emotion can drive a person to drink—or laughter. Fortunately, laughter is my release. Taking my brain out for a walk and letting off the leash provides all sorts of amusement and interesting observations for my consideration. Like a puppy set free, my brain looks in all sorts of places for things curious and interesting. It’s one of the reasons I enjoy reading so much.

Do you remember what going out on the playground at lunchtime or during recess felt like when you were a child? Do you remember the exhilaration and joy of being able to run and jump for just a little while? Do you remember how your voice leapt from your throat in gleeful delight, whooping and hollering, as the fresh air hit you in the face at the same time the realization of this temporary freedom hit your brain? I remember those feelings so vividly. And when I pull a book off the shelf and open it to the first page, those kinds of emotions come rushing back with the urgency of an 18-wheeler with no brakes.

Some people who know me still judge me by the books that are or are not on my bookshelves. They make an assumption that I lack depth and substance based on books I love, they who themselves have never read War and Peace, Anna Karenina, Moby Dick, or The Iliad and The Odyssey, or the poetry of Ben Johnson, they who opine that I could not have possibly done so either. They do not know that I read these back in the days when I could not have afforded the price of a comic book, never mind illustrious tomes such as those that now grace my shelves.

The volumes that reside on my home’s shelves, now that I can afford the luxury of owning my own books, are the sort that evoke great emotion in me, be it laughter, tears or things in between. Books that I can read again and again, happily, are books that give me that same kind of heady thrill that recess gave me as a child. 

One of my favorite writers is Jill Connor Brown, author of The Sweet Potato Queen’s Book of Love and The Sweet Potato Queen’s Big Ass Cookbook (and Financial Planner). Her books are laugh-out-loud funny with stories that are raucous and ribald, the comedy played straight, almost innocently. They make me feel good. Their absurdity and accompanying truisms set my spirit free as if I am taking a break from my life. I just got a copy of her new The Sweet Potato Queens’ Wedding Planner / Divorce Guide and can hardly wait to read it. I’m hoping it will be every bit as wonderful as the rest of her work has been. Since I’ve decided to start this year with a resolution, I definitely am going to begin with a fun book, a book that will make me laugh. I’ll let the expectations other folks have of me be their problem, not mine.

Whatever you read this year, be it a romance novel, comic book, how-to book or an absorbing piece of nonfiction, let your brain play like it did when you were a child. Enjoy your recess. And remember: laugh often, and read more. I’m going to!
 

At age 10, Anne realized she was never going to get to be Miss America since reading a book was not an acceptable talent. So she went on to get a job and raise a family. Along the way, she fixed meals, picked up toys, helped with homework, and collected a drawer full of rejection slips for her “great American novel.” It was not all bad, however, since she ended up wallpapering a closet with them. She currently designs and creates greeting cards for her tiny company, The Frog Prints, LLC, and also works full-time as a Training Specialist. Anne is currently tethered to reality by a loving spouse, two dogs and the occasional hurricane that blows through Florida, although falling headlong and happily into a book is still her favorite “talent.” Contact Anne.