Review for The Sisters of the Winter Wood by Rena Rossner Combined with an Original Article: Unique by Karen S. Wiesner

 

Review for The Sisters of the Winter Wood by Rena Rossner

Combined with an Original Article: Unique

by Karen S. Wiesner 

  Beware spoilers! 

Published in 2018, The Sisters of the Winter Wood is the debut novel of literary agent Rena Rossner, who lives in Israel. I really don't know how to categorize this unusual story. It's a blend of magic and reality, fantasy, folklore, cultural history (specifically Jewish mythology). As to whether it's young adult, I'm not certain. Both protagonists are teenage girls, but I don't know if the intention was for it to be read only by young adults. I was looking for a new audiobook and this one came up, promising to be something atmospheric and supernatural. It was both. The narrator, Ana Clements, was the perfect choice for this material, and I'd go so far as to say that no one else could have done it better. 

In this tale, 17-year-old Liba and her 14-year-old sister Laya live with their parents in a remote village. They've been raised in the forest in a very insular way by their Jewish father and converted-but-never-truly-accepted mother. When their parents are forced to leave the girls at home because the roads aren't safe in order to visit their dying grandfather, the sisters are thrust into secrets and discoveries they could never have imagined. Liba, like her father, has the ability to transform into a bear. Laya and her mother can become swans. Neither girl ever had a clue about this prior to their parents leaving. Overnight, the entire world changes for them as dark forces gather and the village is plunged into danger. 

In ways, I found it unfortunate that the author chose to reveal the shapeshifting abilities when the girls are teenagers. So much of this book was overwhelmed with the angst and ardor of two young, impressionable girls who long to explore their sensuality, despite the environment they were raised in. While I found the cultural aspects of the story intriguing, these characters were painted as good, responsible daughter (Liba) and stupid, flighty daughter (Laya). Combine that bland ordinary (in my opinion anyway) with the persecution of a people wherever they go, seemingly, and it strongly began to feel like there was a wider agenda being served up in this chill, supernatural setting. I was looking for the extraordinary, so for that reason, I found myself mildly disappointed when the tone of the story seemed to change to something much more mundane, like bigotry. 

Despite that, as the kiss of winter begins making itself known in my area of the world along with the promise of Thanksgiving and Christmas, like the unmistakable scent of cinnamon and pine needles in the air, I couldn't stop thinking about the deeper issues this story undergirds and makes haunting with its icy refrain. 

"UNIQUE" 

Liba and Laya live in a world that isn't all that different from the one you and I inhabit. That world and this one seems to want to put everyone in little boxes that may not fit and then persecute those deemed undesirable while they're there. Just like Dr. Seuss's Sneetches story, this is one of the things in this life that should never be. Inside those shackled boxes, we learn the horrors of judging, racism, prejudice, genocide… The list of monstrous behaviors is endless for those who see themselves as superior to all others, so much so that they commit atrocities on other human beings. When people begin to think of themselves as special--even chosen by God (why is it that so many madmen in the history of the world believe that?)--sometimes they view this as permission to do terrible things to others who they see as different from them. 

We all share similar origin--whatever color our skin is, whatever the culture or community or religion or gender we're raised in. We're also all born with a predetermined appearance (based on what our parents impart to us genetically), and there's very little we can actually do about what we're given in an external sense. Physical attractiveness is little more than subjectivity anyway. Two people will never agree on what makes anyone beautiful, so why are we so fixed on the outside shell of a human being? Frankly, it's all stupid. Make no mistake--the "ugly" and the "lovely" are both given these things at birth; no one chose them or can claim that they had anything to do with their own fortune or curse in that regard. While it's important to take care of ourselves so we're healthy and fit and as attractive as we can be externally, in truth we should simply be more accepting of each other's exterior appearance, our race, our culture--and our own--yet we're not! No generation ever really learns from this fatal flaw in our thinking that seems to be a factory reset from one age to the next. It's completely senseless how human beings create innate separations in classes, races, genders, and religions. What a celebration it could be if only we could rejoice over the differences that make each of us unique! 

It takes a tremendous amount of grace and character to accept our differences. Twice as much to accept others with the same equanimity! That's why it's so important to put the majority of our focus into what can be controlled, what can be changed, what can be built and bloomed and become--the internal aspect of who we are, the person inside, the being we want to be more than anything. That's where true beauty can be refined. The interesting part about that is that inner beauty can transform the outer shell. A person so remarkable and loving can be physically astounding, even if realistically the outer package may not suggest it can be so. True inner beauty is also the lasting part of a person's identity. Inner beauty transforms every aspect of our being, including our perspective of the world around us. 

I don't believe I'm unique in that I want to be remembered for the person I was in life, for inner beauty and goodness. That's all that really matters in the end. Those are lasting things that can live on even when I'm gone. We can actually make a mark on this world in that way. But it requires us to let go of vanity and accept who we are, where we come from and how we were raised, even what we look like. It requires not seeing ourselves as superior to all others and to instead see everyone as unique and worthwhile. 

Focused on what matters, build a life that has purpose and meaning. It will outlive you, I promise. You'll never regret that part, and it is what will give you joy, satisfaction, and ultimately contentment. The only person you have to give an accounting to while in this life is yourself. So be the inner person you want to be without shame or regret. It will reflect on the exterior. That is something no one can take away from you. 

Never mind the irony that I'm suggesting that you read The Sisters of the Winter Wood (a very Jewish story, at least on the surface) at this time of year--whether the Thanksgiving or Christmas holiday--when most hearts turn to being mindful of what we have. During this time, we seem to reflect more on the things that matter. To seeing the good in ourselves and in others, to being the hope, benevolence, and goodwill that we want to spread to all. Ultimately, this story I'm reviewing this week will make you realize the heart of what's important in life and the role each of us play in the outcome of good and evil. Our choices can impact everything in and around us. Be a change and influence for good. Be the goodwill and benevolence you want to see. Be unique. Above all, remember that the differences in each of us can become the very celebrations that make life worthwhile. 

Karen Wiesner is an award-winning, multi-genre author of over 150 titles and 16 series.

Visit her website and blog here: https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/

and https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/karens-quill-blog

Visit her publisher here: https://www.writers-exchange.com/Karen-Wiesner/

Beware Ignorance and Want by Karen S. Wiesner

 

Beware Ignorance and Want

by Karen S. Wiesner

 

 

From A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens:

 They were a boy and girl. Yellow, meagre, ragged, scowling, wolfish; but prostrate, too, in their humility. Where graceful youth should have filled their features out, and touched them with its freshest tints, a stale and shrivelled hand, like that of age, had pinched, and twisted them, and pulled them into shreds. Where angels might have sat enthroned, devils lurked, and glared out menacing. No change, no degradation, no perversion of humanity, in any grade, through all the mysteries of wonderful creation, has monsters half so horrible and dread. 

Scrooge started back, appalled. Having them shown to him in this way, he tried to say they were fine children, but the words choked themselves, rather than be parties to a lie of such enormous magnitude. 

“Spirit! are they yours?” Scrooge could say no more.  

“They are Man’s,” said the Spirit, looking down upon them. “And they cling to me, appealing from their fathers. This boy is Ignorance. This girl is Want. Beware them both, and all of their degree, but most of all beware this boy, for on his brow I see that written which is Doom, unless the writing be erased. Deny it!” cried the Spirit, stretching out its hand towards the city. “Slander those who tell it ye! Admit it for your factious purposes, and make it worse. And abide the end!”

The cells that make up the body--whether human, animal, or even plant--are countless, diversified, and specialized. There are different types that each do something special, all with the goal of working efficiently with the rest of the cells. In this way, the body can run so smoothly, few of us are even aware of their existence.

Some cells work with larger organisms within the body. For instance, white blood cells subject themselves to the determination of a higher function that assigns it specific duties. At the times when an invader enters the body, the white blood cell rushes toward danger, often forced to sacrifice itself for the sake of the function it serves. Both danger and self-sacrifice are at the heart of its very existence. For the greater good, it does what it has to in order to defend and keep the body alive. 

Cells don't always work "in community" though. For whatever reason, a cell can become selfish and superior, working against the body with every fiber of its being to serve its own ends. A parasite or cancer cell, literally, considers nothing except its own survival and what it needs to thrive. They maintain complete independence of the whole while freely and selfishly partaking in the benefits of being part of the body. These cells leave the body in want, weaker and sickened. 

In a similar way, individual cells that make up a body are like a community. When all are working together in one place, each undeniably functions better--to the best of their ability. Unconditionally, the individuals within the community share in the fruits and privileges of belonging together. Individual parts have no choice about whether they can live or thrive separate from the rest of the body. A hand, a foot, an eye--none of these can live apart from the rest of the body. But, by existing as a coherent team, everyone flourishes. 

Also, like cells, communities don't always exist in harmony. A community at odds keeps all within it divided and at war, shrouded in the ignorance of shunning everything and everyone around them that doesn't fit a limited agenda. 

Charles Dickens' beloved A Christmas Carol goes out of its way to show us that we can't choose a single day of the year to effect changes within a community that will benefit the whole. Social responsibility must be a daily, continuous pursuit. But so often our global body (our community) is ripped apart by self-focus and flavor of the day, hot-button disagreements. Like cancer cells or parasites, these agendas feed off the slightest bit of hate, superiority, ignorance, and want. 

Another universal truth highlighted in A Christmas Carol is that, when everyone is treating everyone else with respect, regardless of natural or preferential diversity, they become "…fellow-passengers to the grave, and not another race of creatures bound on other journeys." Every part that makes up a body is unique and crucial, even if it's unaware of all each does to make the whole better and healthy. All are equal. None are superior. Humility, acceptance, cooperation, and daily goodwill are the only ways for a body and a community to function. 

This time of the year and every other, human beings can learn a lot from the way our own bodies function in the ideal when every part is grateful for the rest. 

Karen Wiesner is an award-winning, multi-genre author of over 150 titles and 16 series.

Visit her website here: https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/

and https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/karens-quill-blog

Find out more about her books and see her art here: http://www.facebook.com/KarenWiesnerAuthor 

Visit her publisher here: https://www.writers-exchange.com/Karen-Wiesner/

Daily Thanksgiving by Karen S. Wiesner

 

Daily Thanksgiving

by Karen S. Wiesner

 

 

“Be curious, not judgmental.” ~Marguerite and Marshall Shearer 

I read something recently about a father who'd lost his young daughter. Coming to terms with his grief brought him to a place where he realized that life is a gift. It's not something that's earned, deserved, or that any of us have a right to. It's just there when we're born. The proof of that estimation is that 1), in life, there's nothing that can't be taken away from us, and that, 2) in death, we can't take anything with us. The appropriate response to a gift is gratitude, even if and when that gift is taken away from us. As I'm sure that devastated dad did, the first (and probably the hundredth) reaction was to give up, roll over, and withdraw. Sometimes we're quick to judge a situation we're in--whether it's a tragedy or a reason to celebrate--without giving time the option of altering our outlook in whatever way it will from one second to another. 

This made me think about just how much we all judge in the course of a single day. We judge things not only negatively, but also positively and somewhere in-between. Judging is helpless, hapless, habitual, and a form of its own kind of hell because it won't ever end unless we try to change what seems ingrained in every living being on this planet. From the moment we wake up until finally exhausted, we fall asleep, we're continuously judging everything inside, outside, and all around us. 

We judge how we're feeling from one moment to the next as if our estimation determines the rest of the day, the rest of the year, or the rest of our lives. (What a testimony for not making quick decisions about anything we're going through!) 

We judge our dreams, our aspirations, what we eat, what we drink, what we read, the state of the weather, our wardrobe, our appearance, our own height and weight and everyone else's, our jobs (or lack therefore) and hobbies, our interactions with other living beings (including loved ones, pets, plants, strangers), our living arrangements, our bank accounts, our exercise or refusal to workout, our politics, our internet connection, our selected news reports and everything else happening in the world. 

We judge ourselves and everyone around us whether a presence is physical, over the phone, via an email, on TV or social media, or through a window to the neighbor's house or the street. 

What would it be like to live life without this kind of constant, relentless, ruthless, impulsive judging that all too often causes us to become mired in something toxic? It's really not even imaginable that we could prevent judging, is it? This activity is as natural to us as breathing. 

One thing within our power to do is realize that life in the sense of everything can be a gift that we didn't earn, we don't deserve, and we don't have a right to. I'm not sure about you, but that's a humbling thought that makes me take a breath and even a step backwards. There's nothing that can't be taken away from us in this life and we can't take anything with us when we die. In this way, is it possible to simply accept things as they come and go and view them all as experiences that shape us, hopefully for the better? Even pain could prove to be a gift if viewed the right way--after all, there's no better way to grow and evolve than with hardships that may wreck or leave us numb but could also refine and renew us. The bitter truth is frequently more welcome and illuminating than sweet deception. Darkness makes us appreciate the balm of light. A bird's eye view of death can close and suffocate us but sometimes it opens the panorama that is and can be life as we know it. 

As humans, we're going to judge. That's a given. But mindfully forcing ourselves to perceive all the gifts we're given from one moment to the next can determine our own attitudes going forward in these minutes that make up our short lives. Find a way to be grateful for the things that make up your day-to-day, including the things you've lost, because all we'll ever have is this time to exist and experience, good and bad, what life has to offer. 

Breakfast cereal may not be a Thanksgiving turkey with all the fixing's, but it's food, you need it to survive, and, hey, you got a whole box of it sitting in your kitchen, maybe even the kind with little marshmallows in it. Not everyone can say that. 

Your job may not be one you've always hoped for, but it's probably better than not having one at all. You may not have chosen to work with those particular people but, don't forget, when COVID was ruling all our lives only a few years ago, we would have been ecstatic to see those same people because it meant we were out in the world, interacting instead of merely surviving in hollow isolation. Our kids wanted to go to school during that time but were forbidden to. I don't know about you, but I never, ever want to go back to the state of a half-life where vital connections could equally mean hope to get through another day or week just as well as cause the spread of something we wouldn't wish on anyone. 

You may have lost something you loved and couldn't hold onto. But it was in your life for however long, and you got to know it and love it. While you're alive, those memories will always be yours, complete with the laughter that now puts tears in your eyes; the fun that, at the time, made it feel like it could never end; and the deep richness of intimacy with another human being that made you feel alive and that you would have said was worth anything (even eventual loss) to have if for only one moment. Remember that. Don't ever let it go. It was a gift, and it was worth anything to hold as long as you did. 

Judging everything is just what we do as human beings. We may or may not have any control of that aspect, but it is within our grasp to find vantage points that allow us to be grateful for the experiences we've been granted all around us, some dressed up in the guise of things we may initially think we don't care for. I encourage you to try to make it through a whole day actively looking for hidden gifts littered all along your path and find a way to see them as boons. Whether or not you actually make it for long, try to extend it into the next day and the next. Daily thanksgiving can grow into a habit. Ritual judging in all its extremes may become the route to finding unexpected treasures that bring profound and enduring joy in an often heartless world. 

Karen Wiesner is an award-winning, multi-genre author of over 150 titles and 16 series.

Visit her website here: https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/

and https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/karens-quill-blog

Find out more about her books and see her art here: http://www.facebook.com/KarenWiesnerAuthor 

Visit her publisher here: https://www.writers-exchange.com/Karen-Wiesner/

The Practice of Benevolence {A Reflection on Dickens' A Christmas Carol} by Karen S. Wiesner

The Practice of Benevolence

{A Reflection on Dickens' A Christmas Carol}

by Karen S. Wiesner

One of my all-time favorite stories is and always will be Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol, first published in 1843. I imagine it's a story nearly everyone everywhere has heard in one form or another. For my part, I try to read the novella and watch one of the countless film adaptations every year around Christmas. Dickens wrote, "I have endeavoured in this Ghostly little book, to raise the Ghost of an Idea, which shall not put my readers out of humour with themselves, with each other, with the season, or with me. May it haunt their houses pleasantly, and no one wish to lay it."

The messages in this story are timeless. I did an internet search asking what the major themes in this undeniable classic are, and almost none of the offerings that came up could focus on just one because there are so many good messages in this one little tale. Here's my attempt at coming up with a motif for the story:

The spirit of benevolence and goodwill toward our fellow human beings throughout the year is in the eternal need for compassion, kindness, and mercy to all, as well as the transformative power of change coming from within.

Benevolence is the disposition to do good, embodying a genuine desire to promote kindness, charity, and positive attitudes toward others along with an inclination to perform acts of goodwill or extend help to those in need. A benevolent person actively seeks opportunities to benefit others, often without expecting anything in return.

Our world and the people in it often aren't a very good reflection of that description, wouldn't you agree? Selfishness, putting one's desires first, despising one another because of our differences looks like the norm in this day and age--as, in truth, it was at the time Dickens wrote the story and probably has been all throughout time. Does this description of Scrooge (written 180 years ago!) from the narrator of the story sound like anyone you know? I can think of several (including myself) who fit some or all of the points:

"Oh! But he was a tight-fisted hand at the grindstone, Scrooge! a squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous, old sinner! Hard and sharp as flint, from which no steel had ever struck out generous fire; secret, and self-contained, and solitary as an oyster… But what did Scrooge care! It was the very thing he liked. To edge his way along the crowded paths of life, warning all human sympathy to keep its distance..."

I thought it would be illuminating to explore the many good lessons taught, in quotes, by the characters in A Christmas Carol as they reflect on life. Draw what conclusions you will from each quote, but I think most of the truths are self-evident.

Jacob Marley's Reflections of Life:

“I wear the chain I forged in life. I made it link by link, and yard by yard; I girded it on of my own free will, and of my own free will I wore it."

"...no space of regret can make amends for one life’s opportunity misused!"

"Mankind was my business. The common welfare was my business; charity, mercy, forbearance, and benevolence, were, all, my business. The dealings of my trade were but a drop of water in the comprehensive ocean of my business!”

Fred 's (Scrooge's Nephew) Reflections of Life:

"...I am sure I have always thought of Christmas time...as...the only time I know of...when men and women seem by one consent to open their shut-up hearts freely, and to think of people below them as if they really were fellow-passengers to the grave..."

“…his offences carry their own punishment… I am sorry for him; I couldn’t be angry with him if I tried. Who suffers by his ill whims! Himself, always."

Bob Crachit's Reflections of Life:

Bob told them of the extraordinary kindness of Mr. Scrooge’s nephew… "…he is the pleasantest-spoken gentleman you ever heard… 'If I can be of service to you in any way,’ he said, giving me his card, ‘…Pray come to me.' "Now, it wasn’t for the sake of anything he might be able to do for us, so much as for his kind way..."

Ghost of Christmas Past's Reflections of Life:

"Darkness is cheap, and Scrooge liked it…

 “What!” exclaimed the Ghost, “would you so soon put out, with worldly hands, the light I give? Is it not enough that you are one of those whose passions made this cap, and force me through whole trains of years to wear it low upon my brow!”

Ghost of Christmas Present's Reflections of Life:

“There are some upon this earth of yours,” returned the Spirit, “who lay claim to know us, and who do their deeds of passion, pride, ill-will, hatred, envy, bigotry, and selfishness in our name, who are as strange to us and all our kith and kin, as if they had never lived. Remember that, and charge their doings on themselves, not us.”

“Man,” said the Ghost, “if man you be in heart, not adamant, forbear that wicked cant until you have discovered What the surplus is, and Where it is. Will you decide what men shall live, what men shall die? It may be, that in the sight of Heaven, you are more worthless and less fit to live than millions like this poor man’s child. Oh God! to hear the Insect on the leaf pronouncing on the too much life among his hungry brothers in the dust!”

Ghost of Christmas Future's Reflections of Life (note: this ghost didn't actually speak out loud, but Scrooge inferred its intentions based on the things shown to him by it):

"Oh cold, cold, rigid, dreadful Death, set up thine altar here, and dress it with such terrors as thou hast at thy command: for this is thy dominion! But of the loved, revered, and honoured head, thou canst not turn one hair to thy dread purposes, or make one feature odious. It is not that the hand is heavy and will fall down when released; it is not that the heart and pulse are still; but that the hand was open, generous, and true; the heart brave, warm, and tender; and the pulse a man’s. Strike, Shadow, strike! And see his good deeds springing from the wound, to sow the world with life immortal! … No voice pronounced these words in Scrooge’s ears, and yet he heard them when he looked upon the bed. He thought, if this man could be raised up now, what would be his foremost thoughts? Avarice, hard-dealing, griping cares? They have brought him to a rich end, truly! … He lay, in the dark empty house, with not a man, a woman, or a child, to say that he was kind to me in this or that, and for the memory of one kind word I will be kind to him... “Spirit!” he cried, tight clutching at its robe, “hear me! I am not the man I was. I will not be the man I must have been but for this intercourse. Why show me this, if I am past all hope! ... Assure me that I yet may change these shadows you have shown me, by an altered life!”

Ebenezer Scrooge's Reflections of Life:

“Men’s courses will foreshadow certain ends, to which, if persevered in, they must lead. But if the courses be departed from, the ends will change.”

“I will honour Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year. I will live in the Past, the Present, and the Future. The Spirits of all Three shall strive within me. I will not shut out the lessons that they teach!”

Narrator's Reflections of Life:

"He became as good a friend, as good a master, and as good a man, as the good old city knew…"

We live in a world that's ever in need of the very things that are least evident in it. Hatred, intolerance, and violence over things that shouldn't but inevitably and inescapably do divide us against our fellow human beings have become our daily bread. Every day, each one of us commits offenses against others in some way, shape, or form. As I reflect on this sad commentary, I often consider how much good benevolence would have on us and our world throughout the year, if only we practiced it.

Instead of fighting over all the wrong we see others doing, what if we as a whole didn't specify wrongdoing (as in transgressions, flaws, weaknesses, vices, and regrets) into its unlimited categories, instead generalizing wrongs as "wrongs"? We're all carrying around a big bag of those wrongs. If we didn't look inside everyone's "bag of wrongs", wouldn't we have to conclude that we're all equal in the eyes of God as well as each other? Would we then conclude--since we're all carrying around a bag of wrongs, regardless of what's inside--that maybe we should have compassion on one another and accept that we individually are not the only one in need of grace, forgiveness, and unquantified mercy? At that point, could we minister, show kindness and empathy for each other in the name of goodwill toward all? Consider also that, if we realize it's not our place to punish others for their perceived wrongs, a tremendous weight is lifted from our shoulders, leaving us free to pursue peace instead.

We're all on the road to death, and every single road in life inescapably leads to that conclusion. If we're all on even ground, then no one is better or more righteous than the next one, right? In the same vein, no one is more sinful than another either. We're all the same. If we each deserve unilateral hatred and scorn, then, by the same token, don't we all deserve unbiased love and tenderness? Shouldn't we then practice benevolence as our common ground? In this way, respect and courtesy could and should be given to every single person on the planet regardless of who we are and what's inside our particular bag of wrongs.

For as long as breath remains in our lungs, life in our bodies, blood in our veins, it's not too late to live out the benevolence of A Christmas Carol to the world around us every single day. In this way, we each do our part in sowing the world with life immortal.

Read A Christmas Carol free here: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/46/46-h/46-h.htm#link12.

Karen Wiesner is an award-winning, multi-genre author of over 150 titles and 16 series.

Visit her here: https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/

https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/karens-quill-blog

http://www.facebook.com/KarenWiesnerAuthor

Visit her publisher here: https://www.writers-exchange.com/Karen-Wiesner/