A Big Red Wolf I'd Rather Be

Serendipity is my all time favorite word. That and the form I most often it use it in, serendipitous. That's the word that came to mind when I got home from the library yesterday with a children's book and only then realized it was perfectly fitting for my mood. It was just serendipitous! I grabbed it off the shelf for two reasons, the title was "The Red Wolf" and the illustration on the cover was beautiful. I thought my son would enjoy it. When My son and I opened it up a short time later, I was delighted to find myself reading a story about a young girl knitting herself into a wolf costume in order to handle the great "wild world". I quickly decided that I was meant to find this book right at this moment.

I have always been a somewhat mild mannered person. I treat others the way I wanted to be treated only to often find myself falling "victim" to bullies and aggressive people who don't operate in kind. Over the past several weeks I have watched in somewhat slack jawed surprise as my meekness has slipped away, leaving a more confident and empowered me. I have wondered what was it that finally made me feel this good about standing up for myself! At first I felt horrible when I raised my voice in order to be heard. But yet, I did it again when another "doctor" refused to listen to me. It was then I realized that I had done something amazing, I had started letting others know that I am a person too. Since then, I haven't let any opportunity pass to stand up for myself when its been warranted. I have never felt so empowered in all my life. I have stood up to doctors and medical professionals several times without shrinking back. I have whole-heartedly declared that my chronic pain has nothing to do with depression and stood my ground in the face of huge circumspect. For the first time I didn't care whether I could convince someone else or not because I was convinced and that was all that mattered. It has even made me stronger at work and in other parts of my life. The more I stand up for myself, the better I feel, regardless of the chronic pain I have every day. Even though I have this pain, I am not a victim, not of whatever illness this is or of anyone else. Throughout my entire life I felt it was better to give in rather than cause strife, but I have finally realized that I can treat others the way I want to be treated yet still demand the same respect. I am telling the world, I am soooo the opposite of depressed, even though medically speaking I should be. I think my frequent flier miles at doctor's offices finally brought out this other side of me and it's one of the best things to have happened to me!

So anyone who loves knitting and wants to read a great children's story about being empowered through knitting, check out this book. "The Red Wolf" by Margaret Shannon.

From Publishers Weekly A canny seven-year-old princess and a trunkful of knitting wool bring down the house or, more accurately, the castle tower in this cleverly told tale. Locked up by her father to protect her from the dangers of the world, the princess Roselupin knits her magic birthday yarn into a fuzzy red wolf suit. "If the world's too wild for the likes of me,/ Then a BIG RED WOLF I'd rather be," she says. Becoming a red wolf so big she bursts right out of her tower, Roselupin revels in a day (and night) of freedom. But the next morning, in a development explained only in the illustrations, a thread catches on a twig and the princess's suit unravels. Captive again, the imperturbable Roselupin uses more yarn to knit her father "a rather mousy-looking pair of pajamas." The final picture shows a forlorn mouse in a crown gazing out the window as Roselupin runs to join a circle of children in the town square. Shannon's (Gullible's Troubles) antic mixed-media art will have readers howling, too; in one spread, the gargantuan wolf revels in a dazzling selection of baked goods offered by courtiers who seem lilliputian by comparison. The old-world castle town and the dark forest are the stuff of classic fairy tales, but Shannon's sly humor and resourceful heroine are eminently her own. Ages 4-8.
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