Lightly Child, Lightly

~ Live & Learn

Every now and then, when my dad was working away, my grandfather came over from Ireland to stay with us. He brought a black holdall containing his only suit, a clean shirt, some vests and underpants and a bottle of home-brewed poitín. My mother slept with me in my single bed, so my granddad could have her room. ‘I envy him, a bit, you know,’ she said to me, squashed against my army of teddy bears. ‘He moves through his life so lightly. Just packs a bag and goes, without thinking twice.’

~ Jessica Andrews, Saltwater: A Novel (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, January 14, 2020)

Notes:

  • Prior blog post and Reviews of Saltwater: A Novel
  • Grandfather probably wasn’t carrying this black leather holdall from Lotuff
  • Post Title & Inspiration: Aldous Huxley: “It’s dark because you are trying too hard. Lightly child, lightly. Learn to do everything lightly. Yes, feel lightly even though you’re feeling deeply. Just lightly let things happen and lightly cope with them.”

43 thoughts on “Lightly Child, Lightly”

  2. I second Mimi – it’s the essence and it’s perfect.

    (Maybe HH is a relative of her granddad – while I take everything apart from the shower on my trips – he goes with a mini suitcase and doesn’t worry about missing underpants or socks!)

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  5. Touching little Story. Funny, for as many years as i’ve been following this Blog, Quite a few; i’d been seeing ‘Lightly Child Lightly’ lately without recalling where the source of the Quote was, and just this morning, i read far enough to see the source of the Quote, and the context.
    Got it !

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    2. made me laugh…. when I went for my longest ever ‘in one go’ hols, for 3 weeks, to Florence for 2wks of learning hard this wonderful language of Dante and one week to travel about with my friend, I had a HUGE suitcase I borrowed from an elderly family member. When I tried to heave it in the luggage rack above our heads, an elderly gent helped me and said to me:
      Vi trasferite in una casa? (or similar!!!) – When I told him in rather bad Italian that no, it wasn’t a single-handed international move but a 3 weeks holiday, he just chuckled and offered me a bit of his lunch…. 🙂

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  10. It is easier for men, physically to travel lighter…women have some needs men will never have… Such a beautiful, holdall…/// on the rare occasion I get out of the house, I put a zip case in my jeans pocket,it is maybe 3″ by 5″ it holds money (sometimes), cards in a Ziploc portion pak, receipts,emergency meds, tweezers, my tiny cell phone, sometimes a spare key, sometimes a tiny vial of perfume, used to carry a tiny but mighty cross – charm size , must have misplaced that when I changed to a different zip case…usually keys rest in my other pocket, along with a pocket camera, dh wears cargp pants -sometimes he keeps track of the camera…overnight ugh…a cpap machine w/its bag, a bag with personal care & meds…and then one for shoes, including shower thongs, one for clothes…must always be prepared…

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  12. DK I thought you’d be amazed at my little wallet case! Today, first time out of the house in a week he drove me to the store and before we left I said do I even need my wallet case? Na, left it at home…he had the keys and his wallet…and his old school flip cell phone…

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