Life Lessons

There are life lessons I prefer to learn by reading. I’m very thankful for much that I have read. On the other hand, I wish I could find a few books so I could better understand situations like chronic illness and sudden drastic diagnoses. Not because I need to learn how to react, show sympathy, or support, but . . . what I sometimes need to grapple with is the ongoing situation. That that which is mundane can also be extraordinary-yet-hidden.

Other things are extraordinary-yet-hidden. They don’t inherently present a problem. Why is it that human suffering combined with the passage of time seems to meet with . . . forgetfulness and increasing insensitivity from others? What is it about continual pain? Is it because, as sinners, we just can’t hold on to loving kindness toward our neighbor longer? Or might it pertain to the awkwardness of dealing with what never should have been? (I very much view death with enmity. I suspect we could even say chronic illness will be outlawed in Heaven/the New Creation. :))

Life lessons seemingly never end, yet how different will our final-yet-ongoing life lessons be. Thanks be to God!

It pains me that, even if I were to find books on such topics as the above, I may not be able to trust the life lessons the author tries to teach.

Any good recommendations for me? Fiction or non-fiction, religious or secular? Not that I have time to read them. Still, someday!

You could also share life lessons particularly suited to learning from books in the comments. 🙂 You know, so I can send ’em my kiddos’ way! (Mostly kidding.) Or, so I can add them to my own ever-growing reading list.

Wait! No! There’s something else you can do! You can help a girl out and WRITE THOSE BOOKS YOURSELVES!

Wishing you blessed reading and writing, no matter what life lessons you’re learning these days!

2 Comments

Filed under Question Asked, Resource

2 Responses to Life Lessons

  1. I think that’s why I enjoy well-researched historical fiction so much. There are lessons to be learned from times of war, times where disease was more rampant, times of adversity very different from our own. Yet, yet, the struggle of hunan suffering is so very similar and there is truly nothing new under the sun. It teaches but connects. My favorite modern historical fiction is All the Light We Cannot See. I highly recommend it for beauty and for many a life lesson. Also Insert shameless plug for Sarah Baughman’s upcoming title here… 😉 Mid-range chikdren’s fiction is done if the best fiction too and has so many lessons- The War that Saved My Life, anything by Cynthia Lord, and The Mysterious Benedict Society series are some of our favorites.

  2. Lisa

    I suppose as a writer and user-of-words you have read Susan Sontag’s Illness_as_Metaphor, perhaps even the updated one that also has essays on AIDS language.

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