An inspiring story…
When the Pulitzer Prize-winning author Anna Quinlan was 19 and a freshman in college, her mother was diagnosed with cancer. Anna left school and returned home in September. Her mother passed in January.
“It is amazing how much you can learn in one year,” Anna wrote of that difficult time and her response to it. “I went back to college and I looked at all the kids who found life kind of a drag. And I knew I had undergone a sea change. Because I was never going to be able to see life as anything except a gift.
“Oh, I’ve lost that feeling from time to time. Bad days and good days. Life cycles and dark moods….We’ve lived through a period in which pessimism was the fashionable mode, whenthe express purpose of fiction and film seemed to make you feel as terrible as possible….Our children die from neglect, abuse, sometimes simple ignorance and lack of interest. We live knowing that it would take a matter of seconds to wipe out the whole complicated mess.
“And yet…and yet. It’s all so terrific—the conversation and the relationships and the scenery in the midst of all our troubles. That’s why we feel so deeply when it’s endangered—because, if we really think about life, we know how quietly wonderful it can be. We know that if we had only six months left, we’d hold on as tight as we could with both hands to every day, every hour….
“Sometimes we lose that wonder. And sometimes we regain it through hard lessons, the way I did. And sometimes it just comes to us, slowly, steadily, until we realize that, for all its horrors and injustices, the world is a wonderful place.
“The year my mother died, I LEARNED SOMETHING ENDURING ABOUT LIFE: THAT IT IS GLORIOUS, AND WE HAVE NO BUSINESS TAKING IT FOR GRANTED.”
from Connections newsletter, adapted from Family Circle magazine
As I was typing this lovely story for you, my cherished KWD readers, my keyboard suddenly and mysteriously shifted to all caps. I decided to go with the shift because it seemed to me that the universe wanted us all to pay special attention to Anna’s final bit of advice. What a gift these words are! Let’s hold them in our hearts as we all write on!
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