Several people have
asked me where on earth the title for Cat’s Eye Marble came from so I wanted to
share this with everyone. And, yes, it
is a true story, some things I just couldn’t make up into fiction if I wanted
to. (lol) The story line for the book
had been running through my head for a couple of years but I just could not
seem to get it to come together. Then in
the Spring of this year, while in between jobs, I decided to plant a garden. As a kid I always swore I would NEVER plant a
garden. I hated working in the garden
because it was hot, dirty, and there would a million bugs everywhere you
turn. Okay, confession, the dirty part
really didn’t bother me since I was a tomboy but the bugs completely freaked me
out. But as most Southerns find upon
reaching adulthood, no matter how bad you try to fight it, we all seem to have
something engrained in our DNA that drives us to plant something, anything, at
the first hint of warm weather. Hmmm….now
there is a good basis for a scientific study.
Sorry, getting off track a bit.
So in early April I got
out my tiny tiller and began breaking up part of my yard. For those who know me personally, you know, I
do absolutely nothing small scale. This endeavor
was no different. Now, just as a side
note to those wanting to turn part of your yard into a vegetable garden,
especially an enormous one, grass and weeds do not take kindly to being
uprooted and will force you to till, and till, and till, you get the
picture. About the tenth time of
breaking the dirt up I was exhausted but quite proud of myself. Not wanting to risk one single stray weed surviving,
I gave it one last run through and I am glad I did because that was when I
found my treasure!
It was midday; the sun
was directly overhead, when I caught a glimmer of light reflecting off
something in the dirt. I initially
thought it was a piece of glass. When I picked it up I found it was a dirt
caked marble; a cat’s eye marble, clear with orange swirls in it. I found myself mesmerized by it. It triggered a childhood memory I had forgot
so many years ago. I could remember
sitting in my room as a kid playing with a pint jar of marbles for hours. The image was so vivid it was as though I had
gone back in time to 30 years ago. When
I was a little girl I would pretend the cat’s eye marbles I had were crystal
balls that could tell my future and that each marble held a different picture
of my future in it. I can’t tell you how
long I stood in my would-be garden that day staring at that long forgot marble
I had unearthed but I can tell you, the storyline for the book came to me
instantly. I slipped the dirty marble
into the right pocket of my grungy work pants, went inside, and wrote the first
two chapters of the book. (Yes, I left
the tiller sitting where it was.
Luckily, I did remember to at least turn it off.)
I decided to tell
this story because of something that happened to me earlier this afternoon that
amused me. We, as adults, are often
amazed at the imaginations children can have or how they can become attached to
certain things like they are good luck charms.
But children aren’t the only ones that carry that ability of magical
thinking. We as adults do, also. How many of you have good luck charms or do
things that you believe will bring you luck?
Oh, come on now, go ahead and admit it.
I have carried the marble I found that day in the garden in my pocket
every day since. It has become my good
luck charm. Only this afternoon did I
realize how much I thought of it that way when it went missing! Yes, I wigged out. (Blushing a bit to admit this.) I was frantically trying to find it. Luckily I found that it had rolled off my
desk and was hidden in a dark corner underneath. I cannot tell you the relief I felt when I
slipped it back into my pocket.
The moral of this
story? Being childlike is not the same
thing as being childish. Find something
from your childhood that made you smile, and fall in love with it all over again! Happy reading everyone!
Leeann Smith
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