Shimmer and Shine

You know how sometimes you read a book and you feel like every woman you know should read it?

 

This is one of those books.

 

I will be honest here, I didn't quite finish it, but I was with a friend of mine to meet up for dinner last night and I couldn't NOT give her this book! There were maybe a dozen pages left and I really wanted to finish it but the desire for her to read this book, like yesterday, was so strong I just handed it over to her. Then I took it back and marked a page she HAD to read THAT night and gave it back to her. And I'm realizing that she's not the only one that I feel needs to read it. I had already recommended the book to another girlfriend and, knowing my extremely good taste in reading material, she had gone out and bought it and was reading it. All kidding aside, you guys need to read this book from start to finish!  I myself want to reread it again, and I just finished it.  In fact, I just, literally, ordered another one online.  It's like one of those books that you want to never stop reading, even if it's just a little bit every day. 

 

It isn't that I can relate to every single situation or every single letter or every single cry for help but because of the way Cheryl Strayed gives the advice. It's the philosophy behind the advice, not just a specific situation, it's where she gets it from; that primal, visceral place that we all have, that she has this gift for getting to. She's able to get in there with those little appetizer spoons and forks and dig out all the nooks and crannies  to get to what the real point of the matter is.  It's the way she gets around all the marshmallow fluff we call the problem, plucks out the hard, black pit of the real issue and presents it to us on this gourmet platter made of ice that melts away slowly leaving us with the answer we didn't know we were seeking - this water of life in a shimmering puddle in the cup of our hands and says, "Drink!" 

 

It's so impactful the way she does it and yet so tender and respectful of each and every person's feelings because she understands!  She understands that many of these people are coming to her with really sensitive, heart-wrenching stories and yet, she has this gift of reaching each person right where they are, no more, no less, but still challenging.  There's a part of the book where she talks about how she was telling her partner something about her life, something that was hard or hurtful, and he tells her, "You don't have to be broken for me to love you." She said it was like he had dipped her heart right out of her chest and presented it to her.  Now I wish I had the book so I could quote it correctly!  I feel like I botched it!  It was the way she interpreted what she felt into words, I loved it.  It resonated with me. In a way that I was able to understand and digest it and go, "OH. I get that. I so get that."

 

I just realized I never mentioned the name of the book.  It's Tiny Beautiful Things.  And it's full of them.  Get it.  Read it.  You won't regret it.