I am thrilled to be hosting a spot
on the THE BLUE HOUSE by Myrna Denham Porter Blog Tour hosted by Rockstar Book Tours. Check out
my post and make sure to enter the giveaway!
Author: Myrna Denham Porter
Release Date: January 13, 2022
Publisher: Myrna Denham Porter
Formats: Paperback, eBook
Pages: 245
Find it: Goodreads, https://books2read.com/The-Blue-House
Description:
This is a
memoir of a woman who grew up at the edge of the Canadian Prairies. For Myrna
“no woman is an island” and she attributes a “life worth living” to the mentors
along the way, as well as her combined parents’ Christian values. To Myrna, in
today’s society, these values seem to be slipping away. Commitment,
persistence, hard work, love and forgiveness, though harshly delivered by her
father and lovingly delivered by her mother, were all part of Myrna’s early
childhood.
Introduction
Recently, a close friend asked: “Why are you even writing this memoir?” She worried that I would be dredging up more than I could handle. Why wade back into memories that others might prefer that I bury forever? Why dive into painful recollections from my marriage, bouts with cancer, and other heartbreaks?
My stark answer surprised me. I simply said: “Time is running out for me.”
I am approaching eighty years of age. I am writing this memoir to transmit the value system I have distilled from my own life’s unfolding. I have chosen a style that reflects the storytelling tradition of my Icelandic ancestors, who favored short tales and myths, interwoven with moral lessons. I have also chosen incidents and moments that highlight periods in my life in which my values were forged and tested, as glimmers of meaning and purpose were revealed.
As I have labored on this memoir over the past five years, I have entered what some would call old age, a term I do not like. I prefer the phrase elder years, as it reflects my attempt at doing the hard, inner work of becoming an elder, one who aspires towards that rarest of qualities: wisdom. For me, nothing else really matters beyond a life lived towards a higher purpose. Indeed, I believe that unhappiness comes from not being able to find a sustaining sense of meaning and purpose in our lives. Through this work, I am in search of fundamental understandings about my life. I ask myself these questions:
What are the truths and values I’ve wrested from my journey through life?
What have I done with the legacy of values that I was given by my parents and my faith?
Have I learned from, and even transformed, my pain and suffering?
How well have I loved?
As I thought about my spontaneous reply to my friend’s question, I realized there was another response I could have given to her: I have always wanted somehow to let those whose lives began in hardship know that they can succeed. I know this because my own life has been, in many ways, an astonishing success, all the more miraculous given the severe poverty and limitations of my first years.
We see the world through our individual lenses. This is my version, my experience of growing up in the Denham household, and beyond. I am one of seventeen children; the story might well be told differently, with different emphases or other interpretations of events, by any of my surviving brothers or sisters. For example, my younger siblings have a much different, kindlier memory of our father from their youths. Mother may have been very different, as a parent, when she had her first child at seventeen than she was at forty-four, when my youngest brother, Keith, was born. Many “true” versions of our early years could have been written, and indeed, perhaps one or more of my siblings will someday be inspired to write their own story.
By telling the stories engraved on my heart, I also hope to offer a model of success for those who were not born with a silver spoon in their mouths—and perhaps to remind those who were born to affluence that “success” is comprised of much more than material wealth. The truly “wealthy” person lives from the richness of their values. At my heart’s core, I believe that, with the proper support, guidance, and mentoring, it is possible for every single child living to succeed.
My parents gave me a simple code for life:
Honesty.
Hard work.
Striving for excellence.
Helping others.
Though my father brought much pain into my life, he also taught me simple core values: Tell the truth, work hard, and always do your best. From my mother—about whom you will hear much, for her influence upon me was strong, enduring, and less fraught than my father’s—I learned to look out for humanity. Somehow the gift of these transmitted values has served, if not to balance, at least to somewhat offset the pain of growing up in the blue house on the Canadian prairie.
In his Four Quartets, the poet T.S. Eliot wrote:
Time present and time past,
Are both perhaps present in time future.
And time future contained in time past.
If his words illuminate a deeper truth about the mysterious nature of time, then all of the Myrnas I have been and will be are somehow here, right now, divided by memory into constructs that we call “past, present, and future.”
Take this moment right now: seated next to the emerald blue pool outside my home in the southern California desert. I am looking out at the blazing stars above the magnificent Coachella Valley. Yet, ever since beginning this memoir, my mind has been repeatedly, force fully drawn back to the place where my life began. It is almost as if I can shift my vision between two different night skies overlaid: the achingly beautiful, star-jeweled night sky above the tiny shack—the blue house—in Saskatchewan where I lived from age four or five to four teen and this hauntingly calm desert night at the end of summer. On this night, the air is still and hot, and beneath those stars various “chapters” of my life seem to flow together within memory’s crucible.
The strong-willed little girl and the sometimes rest less, sometimes serene elder I’ve become coexist, one occupying the foreground one moment, the other assuming the front of the stage of my life in the next. Between wakefulness and sleep, as the sun rises over the desert mountains, I see my life as a weave of sorrow and beauty, beauty and sorrow. Decades intertwine, as I return again to the blue house. There is something I must find back there.
Indeed, I believe I am telling my story in part to find this buried treasure.
Myrna was born in 1940 into a family of seventeen children in
a remote area of Saskatchewan, Canada. It was an area where conditions were
harsh, aspirations were low and few attended high school. Inspired by her
mother to further her education, Myrna left home at the age of fourteen to work
as a nanny while attending high school.
At the age of seventeen, she emigrated to the United States.
After a successful career in the early sixties as a flight attendant, she
married, raised two children, and obtained her bachelor’s and master’s degrees.
Through her career and volunteer work, Myrna is proud to acknowledge she has
made a difference in the lives of others. She believes that through these
activities a sense of contentment and peace is obtained.
Encouraged by her good friend and associate, psychologist and author Dr. Jacob Shefa, to write her story, Myrna began her memoirs several years ago. When she began her memoirs, her intention was to leave a legacy of strong values and a guide for “a life worth living” for her grandchildren as well as future generations. But as Myrna wrote, she began to realize others might benefit from her story.
(1) winner
will receive a finished copy of THE BLUE HOUSE - US Only.
Ends February 21st, midnight EST.
Tour Schedule:
Week One:
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2/6/2023 |
Guest Post or Excerpt/IG Post |
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2/7/2023 |
Guest Post or Excerpt |
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2/8/2023 |
Guest Post or Excerpt |
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2/8/2023 |
Guest Post or Excerpt/IG Post |
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2/9/2023 |
Guest Post or Excerpt |
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2/10/2023 |
Review/IG Post |
Week Two:
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2/13/2023 |
Guest Post or Excerpt |
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2/14/2023 |
Review |
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2/15/2023 |
Review/IG Post |
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2/16/2023 |
Review/IG Post |
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2/17/2023 |
Review/IG Post |
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