Beloved by Toni Morrison

My copy of Beloved found me in a boutique hotel room, it was one of those room-staging-prop books and the front desk let me it... her home. The cover was solid crimson with the pale yellow script letters, like hues of the heart. She made herself known as soon as my luggage wheels crossed the threshold -  it was love at first sight. I was being more observant than usual, in LA for one of my first modeling bookings. My eyes were open wide, she came to me at exactly the right time. The novel, my Beloved, changed me; I spoke differntly, I thought differently, my internal voice found a different timbre. Slower, smoother, more diliberate. 

The image of Mama Suggs preaching in a clearing in the woods to the town sticks with me the most. Where she exhorted the lauging children, dancing men, and crying women to "Love It. Love it hard." Their flesh, their necks, their lungs.

In my minds eye the same clearing appears when I need a safe place let things go. "Lay em down," she said "Down. Down. Both of em down." The clearing is is warm and sunny with a gentle haze .