Lessons I'm Grateful For: A Book Recommendation.

I recently finished reading The Bright Hour: A Memoir of Living and Dying.  The book was written by a young wife and mother, Nina Riggs, while dying of breast cancer.  I don't write very often about the books I read, even though reading is a huge part of my life.  But Nina's book is something I find myself thinking about every day.  

I am a person who is sometimes overly consumed with mortality.  This book for me has been a lesson on dying.  For years I've kept a common book.  I've copied down more of Nina's words than I have from any other source before.  Her courage, grace, and insight are not easily forgotten, nor should they be.  

Not often, but there are times when emotions are too strong for me to write about, knowing I won't find words that will do them justice.  Yet she wrote, leaving a legacy for her husband and two young sons (ten and six).  Nina died February of this year.  She was 39.

The truth of it is, I hope I never go a day without thinking of Nina's book.  To be honest, I had a healthy fear of death and now she's changed how I feel about it.   She's given me important lessons on living and dying.  Lessons that were delivered with humor, love, and hope.  Because, "Dying isn't the end of the world."