10 Apr Following the Pull of the Moon to enlivened living
Inspiration from a Novel
Have you ever felt you understood yourself–and your own life–better after hearing someone else tell you the story of theirs?
This is how I felt about Elizabeth Berg’s novel, Pull of the Moon.
It is a tale about a menopausal woman, Nan, who is in a long-term marriage to her husband, Martin.
Delightfully, the story takes flight immediately as we learn that Nan has launched into an unplanned, spur-of-the-moment road trip. She leaves Martin a note saying that she will be back “in a day or two.”
Only, we quickly learn that she will not return in a day or two. One day unfolds into the next, with Nan having “no idea what will happen next.”
Pull of the Moon is not a story about Nan’s husband or any criticisms of him.
Much richer, it is the telling of Nan’s self-observations and blossoming self-awareness.
Nan described her Pre-Road-Trip self:
“I would check my purse three times for the keys before I left the house, stacking mail in order of the size of the envelopes.
Answer the phone every single time it rings.
Write ‘paper towels’ on the grocery list the second after I used the last one.”
In retrospect, Nan realizes that when at home and in her ‘routine,’ she was always “waiting for something awful to happen.”
Those words hit home with me.
They reminded me of times in my life when I worked diligently to color in the lines, be orderly, and do precisely
what was expected of me given the labeled roles I attempted to embody.
Until I read this book some years ago, I hadn’t questioned why I persisted in those kinds of patterns in myself, though.
As I thought about her observations, I supposed that -like Nan- I behaved that way because I had fretted that if I did not,
then some “awful,” unnamed, horrible thing might happen.
And, this, I could see held me in fear. It limited what I was willing to step out and do.
Nan steps out into the unknown on her spontaneous journey. She does so uncomfortably aware that this is “not like” her.
Being “not like” herself, though, was the gift that breathed life into the predictable one that was making her feel she was “drowning.”
As it turns out, being “not like” herself brought color, imagination, and joy into her one-and-only-now life!
In her journey, Nan rediscovers interests and strengths she had forgotten and pushed away and uncovers abilities she didn’t know she had.
These revelations, she says, she “would not have found….without leaving.”
For me, reading Pull of the Moon was like hanging out with a girlfriend, chatting about life.
Nan’s escapades made me laugh and sometimes made me hold my breath anticipating resolution of dilemmas on her path.
Often her perspective gave me a new way of seeing my own life experiences differently, specifically through the lens of a ‘woman of a certain age.’
Photo: Jessica Da Rosa on Unsplash
This is a fun read that has the added benefit of illuminating for us an awareness when our own lives have begun to feel a bit dull and may even offer insight into what might be keeping us stuck.
Pull of the Moon is a book that also can remind us about our inner ability to dream a more enlivened future for ourselves.
Nan’s road trip inspires the idea that sometimes
one must step forward into the unknown before the best life path can be revealed.
Do you have a favorite book that informed you about yourself and something new you wanted in life? Let us know in the comments below!
May something inspiring find you today.
-Dehryl
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