Ask Baba Yaga

Ask Baba Yaga: Otherworldly Advice for Everyday Troubles by Taisia Kitaiskaia
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A quirky, funny advice book that, with it's concise yet poetic language, reaches through to the core of important life questions and forces you to examine your own heart, mind, and feelings. The rich imagery provides a backdrop to rethink your issues and see them from a new angle. I also love the styling of the book, and it's lovely illustrations.

Here are a few of my favorite lines.

"Everyone dies, alone in their own cauldron--yr death will be no more or less gruesome than any other's. & happiness is a thing that passes through you, not a thing you meet & hold in yr deathly grip for ever afterwards. You are afraid; of being the last at a party without the others, but the others have gone on into a wood they do not understand. It is the same wood you stand in, weeping. & the trees look at all of you the same, & say nothing."

"You feel he is the cub you helped raise, & his fur you love even as you don't wish it near you. ; So when he goes out yonder to eat his fill you anger that he can wander so easily & find what he seeks without you. ) Stare into the black puddle where he left his paw print, stare & mourn a little, let yr grieving mix with that abandoned water & drink it all down, the loss of him & the loss of you, too, a little, for he raised you also."

"No one pays attention to a quiet creek ; likely few have noticed yr still surface. & those who have & who love you will stand near & know you in yr new way, as long as it lasts.) They, will be the ones who matter. But do not flail & gasp on their account--you will only swallow water, & drown deeper. :Look to see what, it is that pushed you down,& hold yr breath for now."

"Breakage is a violence & a doing yr soft body cannot take. Why ruin the shell that protects you, that is yr home? , Rather, find in the forest a tender moss patch, one where there is water & a good feeding, where safe others sometimes go. Slip from yr shell (but keep it close)--nibble on a green thing. Look in the eye of a friendly creature. Retreat into yr shell. ; Do this every several days. It is the reaching for what is tasty that will coax you out; there must be no shattering."

"The sun is a miracle of heat and light. Be curious about this. ;The moon is Earth's constant companion, a shadowy thought which Earth keeps thinking--this dark body follows us eternal. But Sun is much greater, it places Earth. To be sunny is not to sew yourself a gold, cold garment.. It is to know the sun's necessity for our living. Do not fret, the moon will never leave you."

View all my reviews