Comments on: Stories

By: Katrina

Katrina — Fri, 13 Apr 2007 10:03:59 +0000

I’m coming late to this entry, but I guess I was just waiting for the right time to read it. With the current painful and difficult struggle I face right now, I’ve just been given the realization, through reading this post, that perhaps I need to sit with this discomfort for just a *bit* more instead of retreating into the safety of old habits, old lives….Easy to say, hard to do. Thanks for this.

By: Marilyn

Marilyn — Wed, 11 Apr 2007 22:57:57 +0000

On March 29th, my much-loved Aunt died suddenly of a heart attack. A week later we had a service for her in Phoenix. I had the good fortune of (with some of my family members) staying in her home for a couple of days during our visit. It was a wonderful way to get some closure. Last Thursday morning–the morning of her service–I pulled back the sheer curtain in front of a wall of bookshelves in her guest bedroom where I’d been staying for two days. The first thing I saw were a couple of shelves of novels…books that I might have read myself. I instantly felt heartbroken. All those years of corresponding with her…and knowing how much she loved to read…and it never once occurred to me to ask her what she was reading. I had made the horrible mistake of assuming she’d be reading the sort of fiction I’d look down on. All those years we could have been talking books. Everyone’s story has many layers. It was a painful way to learn the lesson (yet again) to not assume…to not judge without knowledge…to not care enough to get the whole story.

By: Popeye

Popeye — Tue, 10 Apr 2007 04:32:31 +0000

So, Ms. Swirly, tell us a story. . .

By: kelly rae

kelly rae — Mon, 09 Apr 2007 21:03:21 +0000

well you know bits and pieces of my story, and yes you are very kind and gentle. it is true that the hardest of experiences gives us a renewed sense of perspective, at least for me anyway. and that sense of perspective, that freedom, carries me through even today. hard but good. hard but good.

By: liz elayne

liz elayne — Mon, 09 Apr 2007 18:25:59 +0000

i just wrote an email to someone about this idea christine. that it is the incredible that shifts us and changes us, even when the incredible is full of pain and grief.
your words always reach out to me and i find myself nodding along…
thanks for that.

By: Melba

Melba — Sat, 07 Apr 2007 21:17:49 +0000

I am praying that your book is one I hold in my hands some day soon.
The collage is perfect; Exactly what I want to see more of in bookstores and I think our creative blogging community would agree with me! (now the “book world” just needs to hear and believe us!)
XO,
Melba

By: ruby

ruby — Fri, 06 Apr 2007 23:22:34 +0000

such a thoughtful post, and i love that hemingway quote that maria posted!
looking forward to the book…

By: Popeye

Popeye — Fri, 06 Apr 2007 09:13:18 +0000

Yep. I’m learning that I can’t be open to the potential transformation on the other end of a period of difficulty until I embrace the difficulty as a real part of my life. Suddenly, all of those things that I thought would be corrosive end up as building blocks. Still, there continues to be a whole lot of places I’m deathly afraid of visiting.

By: Literary bohemian

Literary bohemian — Thu, 05 Apr 2007 20:09:56 +0000

This post makes me recall the Goddess of transformation -Cerridwen. Whatever is put into Cerridwens cauldron comes out changed. But first it is boiled and stirred in the midst of a large bonfire -crackling, popping and scalding. The heat of transformation can be painful and intense but always worth the trouble.

By: maria

maria — Thu, 05 Apr 2007 19:24:54 +0000

That is one of my favorite quotes too, and I also discovered it during one of the most difficult years of my life (… since there’s been *more* than one for sure). That book was very powerful. I took solace in it and lots of others, and I can certainly say that the difficult times have made me much stronger.
I also love these two quotes in the same vein:
“The world breaks everyone, and afterward many are strong in the broken places.”
– Ernest Hemingway
“The turning point in the process of growing up is when you discover the core of strength within you that survives all hurt.”
– Max Lerner
Everybody has a story, and each one is so fascinating and rich. Sometimes I wish there was a ‘place,’ website, repository, whatever (maybe like Spielberg’s Holocaust project) that would collect life stories in some really cool, universally accessible way that would live on forever.
Congratulations on completing your book proposal. Looks beautiful!