Thankful Thursday - Today

I just read Darin Strauss' Half a Life: A Memoir in one day.  Fantastic read.

It reminded in some ways with another favorite book of mine, Joan Didion's The Year of Magical Thinking.  A longer book I read in two days.

There is something about books like these, books where life/lives end or are cut short that make me thankful.  There is something about people who go through pain getting through it, that makes me hopeful.

Ever since I was a child, I've been fascinated about who leaves this world and who stays.

I'm fascinated with how life goes on and/or doesn't go on.  I used to ask my mum to drive me to gates of the cemetery near our home so I could gaze through the fence.  Oddly, she did.  And I would look in and wonder about their stories, who they were, and all the questions that go with dying.

Darin Strauss' gave me insight to what it is like to live with being the reason someone died--as an 18 year old, a girl at his school swerved out into the road on her bike and hit his car.  He really tries to be honest about how he felt, how he questioned his life, his feelings, his actions.

So today, I'm thankful for today.