Author Beth Rowles Scott Photo By Michael Moster
Helena Kaufman The Afro News Vancouver
In the midst of a book detailing the life journey of a Canadian woman from girlhood to unexpected gratification, lies a formula for happiness. It is nestled in the chapters of “Pinch Me, A Long Walk From Home”, a first volume of stories by author Beth Rowles Scott. Extraordinarily readable and engaging, the segments detail her life path from being a self described fat little girl on the Saskatchewan prairie to her move to maturity in British Columbia. Finally, there is an unplanned adventure that would prove to reinvigorate and redesign her own life, and that of thousands of others, through her work in Kenya.
“Like beads in a bowl,” as Beth characterizes her chapters, she gathered up a life story that informs and inspires. “Pinch Me” contrasts how she felt as a child and how she feels now. For a long time she felt she was that young fat girl, despite external growth and achievement. It could have slowed her down that self image. She could perhaps have limited herself by her environment and her body. Today in her daily life and throughout her book, Beth looks at all the blessings in her life and opportunities and thinks, “Pinch me, is it real?”
Stages
Satisfaction surrounds Beth as she looks back on an amazing life, but to the reader she represents hope. Following the formula she discovered for herself at a very young age, the reader is given privy to possibility. Any aspirations it seems can come true and pay off in current and ongoing achievement – even for late bloomers. For Beth, happiness is comprised of the life guiding elements of ‘Someone to Love, Something to Do, Something to Look Forward To.”
