What You Doing, Janie?

"I'm watching God..."

I finished reading "Their Eyes Were Watching God" last night and was sad to see it end. What an amazing read. I absolutely love the movie and watched it too many times to count so I had to get the book in order to fulfill a longing for more. More connection, conversations, feelings, gestures, glances, touch, and love. While reading I felt the bond between Janie and Tea Cake so much stronger. There were times while reading where I would just pause and linger on the sensations my body felt from reading different interactions between those two. When they made Love, I made Love, yes, it was that serious. Have you ever read a book that drew you in so deep that you felt you were the characters or that particular character you connected with? Did you experience, if even for a moment, life between their eyes?

In the movie, the phrase, "I'm watching God", was Janie's response to Tea Cake when he found her gazing upon the sky in wonderment. Janie is the kind of woman that was sensitive to the magnificaint creation of the world around her. She would lay up under trees, connect and become one with natures life cycle. Like the time she connected with something as simple as a honeybee and a pear tree. In her free spirit she was willing to explore, imagine, gather information from what may seem like meaningless things. The dance between the honeybee and the pear tree may have seemed insignificant but looking beyond the significant she saw a union between two that was inevitable. A force that is so present and strong in it's current that it could be felt if given the slightest acknowledgement. Sexuality in full bloom as the honeybee is drawn to the tree, becomes connected, gives life and takes life, a natural progression within us all.

Janie dreams constantly of love and being in that love she so wants to create. She's a woman who is easily tickled by herself with this overflowing fountain of joy that comes from deep within. This joy allows her to get through some of the toughest challenges that life brings her way, never completely robbing of it. Janie simply tucked it away deep inside of herself knowing one day they will dance again. She exiubarates strength, patience, kindness, long-lasting dedication and that's what assists her in finding and experiencing true love for herself. Janie is one bad ass women!

For me seeing the movie first did not spoil the book at all. If anything it only enhanced it. My only challenge was to look beyond the faces that where in the movie and create new ones for myself which opened up a whole new world of possible characters. It's a fact that whenever a movie is made from a book not everything is going to be the way it is. If you can open your mind to that and let it go you can find appreciation in both. That's the way I look at it.

The credit for this truly awesome book all goes to the Beautiful, Zora Neale Hurston

"Love makes your soul crawl out from its hiding place" ~ Zora Neale Hurston

"There is no book more important to me than this one." ~ Alice Walker

read how Alice Walker played a huge part in preserving African American Culture.