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Sound Bites from Book
Sample Book Review
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SOUND BITES
Book: “Smiling at the World”
Nothing left to buy. Time has run out. The red and black
backpack sits crumpled in the corner of my bedroom wondering
no doubt where it’s headed and why it’s still
empty. I turn my gaze to the mountain of clothes on my
bed wondering what to pack for my yearlong solo adventure.
By the end of each day, I was hot, dirty, and tired from
tough manual labor. Tufo smashing became a daily chore,
hacking it into pea gravel bits, putting it into small
buckets.
But after lunch comes an insurmountable challenge to
my optimistic attitude as Joris puts one of the cats in
his lap and begins picking off ticks, then drowning them
in his water glass.
Are my travels meant to teach me how other cultures deal
with time, love, women and emotions?
Maybe living with caring people, gave me a different
sense of self. My mirror was reflecting a different Joyce.
Sensible Joyce kept asking herself what she was doing
sitting with a bunch of wild baboons with large sharp
teeth and strong arms! Breathing slowly I was starting
to feel a little bit calmer and then things changed dramatically.
I loved South Africa. I wanted to remember the extremes
that are here: nothing smoothed over, life, death, rich,
poor, heat, coolness, the most beautiful smiles and strong
souls like those of the lions.
We have extremely huge footprints today. If every person
lived as the average wealthy American does today, we’d
need almost ten planets worth of resources to sustain
ourselves.
A river ran through the park and bamboo huts built on
stilts were sprinkled around the park. Most amazing were
the elephants roaming around, big enormous dusty elephants.
A beggar, who had watched me climb up the last group
of stairs,moved to sit near me. Very curious he stared
at me, probably amazed by the number of sweat drops falling
off my face.
After a year of falling in love with the earth –
for that is what happened – my heart was strong
and open. I believed.
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If you would like to schedule a radio or TV interview,
please contact info@smilingattheworld.com
to arrange an appointment. The author is also available
for freelance assignments.
