Lindsay Eland - Middle Grade Author

Baby shoes kick the air wondering what they are

Toddler shoes stumble and babble on the ground

Kids shoes run and run and run and run, jump, and run and run and run

Teen shoes kick back and kick off, swagger and even strut every now and then

Adult shoes walk sure and straight, confident in no where to go…then over years and years they shuffle down the hallway for a pot of tea and sound like slippers

New shoes click and clack, flaunt, strut, run, jump and dance to whatever music is played

Old shoes scuffle and talk when they walk, miles and miles and miles of memories to chat about

High heels, slippers, clogs, pedal-pushers, cowboy boots, sandals, tennies, flippers, cleets, clod-hoppers, rain boots

Shoes

We remember the special ones. They’re hard to forget. Leaving an imprint on us somewhere…somewhere on our soles.

We remember.

The one’s we wore on the first day of 5th grade, or the heels we teetered on to the prom, the cleets that dug up the dirt during the game, the warm slippers we slipped our feet into by the fire.

Shoes

Taking us places we want to go, and dragging us to those we don’t want to.

As torn and worn as we are, but as ready and eager to get out into the world and live as our hearts are.

Shoes and hearts walking through the door and out onto the sidewalk or dirt road and then covering the ground with steps, leaps, strides, and plain old living.

My family is very big on movie quotes. We quote them more than just often and they usually find their way into every single conversation we have with each other. Here are a few of my very favorites, though there are oh-so many more! What are some of yours?

1. “As You Wish” A phrase that is well-known because of The Princess Bride. Ahh, dear Wesley there indeed is nothing greater than the bond of true love…or is it “true whov?”

2. “Nobody Put’s Baby In The Corner.” –Johnny from Dirty Dancing. Okay, the best scene EVER from a movie I probably saw way before I should’ve, but one that I still adore to this day. And I’ll admit it without shame, Patrick Swazye was my biggest crush growing up (even though he was about twenty plus years older than me at the time). I may have shed a tear when he died…

3. “What I need from you is…a hundred-thousand dollars” –Corky St Claire in Waiting For Guffman. Really, this entire movie is quote worthy. But I picked this specific one because it’s one of my favorites and I can at least find one instance per day in which to use it. Example:

Target clerk: “Do you need anything?”

Me: “What I need from you is…a hundred-thousand dollars”

4. “I’d be sitting in a hot tub with my soul mate” –Uncle Rico in Napolean Dynomite. Really, Uncle Rico is genius and this quote can only be matched by Kip when he says, “Your mom goes to college.” Another movie that is fully quote worthy and is almost better to quote than it is to watch.

5. “How wonderful life is now that you’re in the world”– Christian and Satine in Moulin Rouge. LOVE this movie and really…I can’t not look at my husband and my kids and not think this exact thing.

6. “Where you are is home. You are my home”–Jane in Jane Erye speaking to the very romantic, and tres stormy, Mr. Rochester. A scene I cry at every time I watch it and/or read it and maybe, every now and then, I imagine myself in this scene…maybe.

7. “My dad wove a tapestry of profanity that still hangs somewhere over Lake Michagin”–Ralphy in A Christmas Story. This one is especially funny because my PopPop (my dad’s dad) was pretty much the father in A Christmas Story…specifically all scenes pertaining to the furnace and the aforementioned profanity.

8. “Eat my rubber and burn my dust, Liver Lips”–Chevy Chase in Christmas Vacation. Need I say more?

9. “And what I said about you was true too, only I shouldn’t have said it”–Anne Shirley in Anne of Green Gables. One of my favorite movies, and one of my favorite characters of all time being completely and totally herself–hilarious, honest, and endearing.

10. “Stop with the negative ways, Baby”–Oddball in Kelly’s Hero’s. This is a Clint Eastwood movie that I would say is my favorite by far.  This is another phrase that I not only use throughout my normal day, but one that I try to live by as well.