Every summer I get giddy thinking about the sweet, sweaty hours to come immersed in mindless books. Oh I know, mindless is a bit strong, but summer reading has a flavor that sets it apart from other more intellectual seasons. As school ends and the temperature rises, I escape into new worlds, meeting interesting characters who keep me company through the long lazy days of sunshine. Thus far I have plowed through three books, The Gift by Lois Lowry, The Girl Who Chased the Moon by Sarah Addison Allen, and most recently The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows (positively lovely). I recommend all three with enthusiasm and although I have no intention of penning a literary description of any kind I will say, that each book left me feeling a bit lighter, not smarter but certainly lighter. I'll keep you posted as my hefty stack of unread books continues to shrink. Just imagine what enthusiasm I will garner for my literary pursuits once the weather outside no longer looks like this:
Can anyone say "ENOUGH ALREADY!!!"?
Grief is defined as a deep or intense sorrow. I have been thinking a lot about grief, about it's wide and sticky reach, about the watery quality of it's absorption and the agonizing effort of swimming to shore. Intense sorrow happens. It is a part of life. Yet we press against it. We try to eradicate it. How? We encapsulate our grief in a story, thus effectively removing us from the immediacy of the pain. The mind promises salvation and begins to tell a story, over and over and over. We listen to the inner ramblings, the constant diatribe, the neurotic attempt to avoid the experience. When someone is hurting we listen to their story, we talk about it, we recount our own story, but we certainly don't jump in the waters of sadness, instead we sit on the bank of our familiar longing. Once, when I was floundering in deep grief, my youngest brother knelt next to me and held me for over an hour. He didn't speak. He didn't commiserate. He just jumped in the
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A love story of the highest order; complete with images you cannot shake, no matter how hard you try, or want to...and a feeling of loss when the last page is turned. It's wonderful :)