Bloom

I love to read. Lately, I have read very little outside of my Bible. But on Saturday, I started a novel I had downloaded a few weeks ago, "Bloom" by Marilyn Grey. It is the most important book, outside of God's Word, that I have read in a very long time.

It is a book about loss. Terrible loss. Physical loss. Loss to death. Loss of love. Loss of life as it once was. Loss. 

And it is a book about hope! And living!

I will be reading it again. And, over the next few days, I will be sharing some quotes and lessons from the book.

So, tonight's quote is from chapter one. I didn't really learn anything from it. It just expresses so clearly where I have been the last couple of years. 

 "I feared coming home and burdening others. I feared being needy and, most of all, I feared that I'd no longer be able to hide my tears. When someone visited me in the hospital I had enough warning to dry my eyes and put on a happy face. In the world I'd need to hold it in or let it out. And let it [be] known...Ignoring her optimism. I knew the heart of an optimist well. I used to be one. My entire life. Until now. But normal wouldn't exist for me ever again. A new normal, maybe. But not my old normal."

That is the way of loss. Everything changes. And the more you lose, the more things change. And fear and pessimism creep in and leave you incapacitated, unable to live, dead. Just as dead as whatever it was you lost.

But, praise God, we don't stay there!!! Walk with me the next few days, maybe weeks, as I explore resurrection, coming back to life!

It's a wonderful thing!