To Speak of Love and the Lake: Short Stories($11.00Value)

Description

Stories from a lake town about love and the lake, stories which can be read in any order. Love in its widely divergent, perplexing, unexpected and often demanding contexts, beyond ability to confine. The lake with its varying moods, an abiding presence, usually beneficent, always within our reach. Stories from a small town perspective but with wider relevance, intended to fully engage the reader and keep pages turning. Love as persisting, as witnessed between: long married spouses working together indulgently, tolerantly, on daily chores; a widow, her husband having died ten years earlier, who keeps seeing reminders of him in others crossing her path; a mother and her late son, whose death in an accident four years earlier she's just now seeing with dawning perspective and acceptance; a son at his lowest ebb due to addiction who finds harkening back to his mother-- dead for twelve years-- crucial to his decision to re-enter treatment; a teenage mother and her unplanned newborn infant, the mother undaunted, resolute-- as inspirited as a present day Jane Eyre-- steeling herself to the child's care and her own advancement; a father and two young sons who he leaves with his wife for who knows how long while he lies low, evading forces looking to apprehend him. There is love as lost between divorced spouses, the wife, juggling job and expenses, attempting to preserve equanimity, to stay ahead of despair and persevere, not ruling out a hopeful outcome. There is perspective found through a late season run by the lake-- and as the run shifts dreamlike to a view of his past-- to consolation found in a family bound by shared ritual and struggle. Or elevation of spirit born in one-to-one conversation and interaction, be it with day-to-day mere acquaintances, those more closely known, those not known at all, as in the Good Samaritan setting, but all recognized as fellows. This engagement as good and uncomplicated, the narrator says, as the lake from which we've turned. Our love and connection most starkly sensed in its approaching loss-- in our having to say goodbye-- the poignant running out of time we have together with children, family, others. And the lake: its recurrent seasonal cycles, its waxing and waning ice and changing light, its compelling impact on us beyond explanation. The lake as infrequently the stage for danger, of loss, as the focal point of natural forces demanding respect. The lake as mostly the ever stabilizing, non-judgmental, and indulgent presence we know, helping us keep on.