I was cleaning up my house recently when I came across a picture of myself in high school. I had not seen a picture like this in years and years, and it shocked me. I searched that innocent face with the trusting eyes, chubby cheeks, bushy eyebrows, and retainer, wondering if she had any inkling of what her future would hold, and trying to find traces of the woman I would become. I then looked at myself in the mirror, hoping for some glimpse of that sweet young soul.
I wonder if Kris Radish felt that way when digging into her past for her latest book, Gravel on the Side of the Road--True Stories From A Broad Who Has Been There. This is my first time reading something from Kris, and after the first sentence ("Ordinary is very often extraordinary but experiences in this realm are usually overlooked."), I was hooked. You can tell a lot about a book from its opening sentence, and this one lived up to everything those words promised. I cannot wait to read more of her work.
I am so fascinated by the life that Kris has lead, and in these stories we find out that she is a woman who has done everything from raise babies to write for a newspaper to work as a waitress to earn money by catching night crawlers. Her fierce love for her children shines through, as well as compassion for tender souls (some who appear to be tough on the outside) who have been dealt a losing hand in the game of life.
In Jesus Drives A Thunderbird, the story that opens the book, we meet a woman (Kris) who is independent enough to have a cabin on an isolated mountain and handle a stranger at her gate.
Even Now is about the tragedy that she encountered when she responded to a routine fire call; this one will steal your breath and rip your heart right out of your chest. In Turquoise Ring, we are introduced to Ray ("He had two shirts. One plaid and the other more plaid."), a customer of Kris's at the diner who had suffered a stroke, whose simple presence helped soothe away her own anguish and loneliness.
Just the variety of experiences in Gravel on the Side of the Road are enough to make your head spin, as the book bounces from chance meetings to the sisterhood of women, peace, war, mullets, blind dates, and road trips with your family as a kid. Read this book if you want to be inspired by the ordinary moments in life that can be transformed by your attention, which is a priceless gift in these days of smartphones. I know that I am inspired to take a closer look at the people with whom I interact on a daily basis, from neighbors to the cashier at the local health food store.
In The Day They Sliced Me Open, Kris writes about how her newborn son seemed to know her voice just minutes after being born, and years later always knows it is her. Soldier Boy recounts Kris's meeting with a young man from her home state of Wisconsin, moments before hopping on a plane that would take him to a war zone; he had gotten married the day before. Becky Barton, a story that had me sobbing on the treadmill at the gym, is about a thirteen-year-old cancer patient whose mother wanted Kris to write a story about her daughter to help the family raise money for treatment ("Get involved. Never look back. Throw my heart into the air and watch it land in Becky's bony hands.").
Someone once said, "Some people come into our lives and quickly go. Some stay for awhile, leave footprints on our heart, and we are never, ever the same." Gravel on the Side of the Road has left an impression on my soul, and I am just so thankful that there are writers like Kris Radish to remind us of the beauty, wonder, and humanity all around us.
