It goes something like this . . .

I had the nicest compliment a few weeks ago. A homeschooling acquaintance asked for some advice and commented that I always seemed so confident in whatever I was doing and always seemed totally comfortable with our homsechooling life. Glad we appear that way! We are comfortable and confident because it IS working for us.

Last week Evie finished a book she was reading, chosen because she loves the author (Shannon Hale). I found her with a tattered copy of the complete works of Grimm and a German-English dictionary. "Just comparing a few things." She told me when I asked what she was up to. I got a new series of books for her from the library (Chronicles of the Imaginarium Geographica) and upon finishing the first in the series she began telling me all about characters in the book who are/were real people and their connections. She brought in everything from Shakespeare to the Egyptian godddess Bastet and Mark Twain. Of the 15 or so historical figures that were involved in her book, she was only unfamiliar with two--oddly, the married couple of Mary Wollstonecroft Shelley and Percy Bysshe Shelley. She had heard of some of them (H.G. Wells) but couldn't quite place them. With a few highlights of their most popular works or accomplishments she would say "OH! Like in . . . " and name another story.

My point in all of this is that connections happen everywhere. Myth is powerful and important. Examinations of and exposure to archetypes and folklore and human psychology happen everywhere. People work out their place in the world by experiencing life, comparing ideas, digesting stories and writing their own.

I am grateful to the many authors who have been compelled to rework the ageless stories in new ways, heaping connection upon connection and facilitating new discoveries in all of us.

That is how it happens.