Aside from obvious major milestones like graduations and having children, there are smaller events that, although lacking the fanfare or pomp and circumstance of something BIG, nevertheless leave an indelible mark upon you. Mental bookmarks that, once placed, will forever leave their impression.
Of course big things like weddings or babies leave big marks and you know in that moment that THIS is it; something in me is growing- changing- evolving.
Sometimes however, the moment’s seemingly innocuous appearance allows it to pass with little to no direct thought or deeper analysis; yet, nonetheless the mental bookmark was placed and you’ve been changed.
For me, one such moment was the first time I read a biography. I was in middle school and had been given an assignment to write a book report on any biography. I was no novice reader, mind you. My mother had instilled an early love of books in me and enjoy books I did. Frequently. But somehow non-fiction and biographies were off my radar. They seemed boring. This assignment proved to be life-changing because when our teacher called for us to hurry and lineup to leave, I grudgingly grabbed a book I saw in passing. It was a biography on Eleanor of Aquitaine and I picked it for no other reason that I was out of time and this lady shared a name with my paternal grandmother.
And then I read it.
The book left such a mark on me not because of the amazing life this woman led- but because She. Was. Real. It was mind blowing.
To this day I can vividly recall having that thought over and over as I read that book– She had lived. She had been flesh and blood. She was real.
It was a mental bookmark in my life. A simple reading of a simple book but from that moment on I realized great people, powerful figureheads, famous people that go on to have books written about them- are all just that– people. Like little ol’ me. Suddenly non-fiction was no longer a chore. It was real. It was powerful. It was personal.
It awakened me to the thought that I am the lead character in my life; I am my own heroine. It filled me with the feeling that if I set my mind to it I could become an astronaut, or climb a mountain, or heck- marry Luke Perry from 90210. It could happen. I was alive after all. The world was ripe for the taking.
It was a powerful thought taking root in the mind of child. And it was sown by a queen from the Middle Ages. (And the author who wrote down her autobiography.)
Eleanor’s effigy at Fontevraud Abbey
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