Breatheless
Spoiler Alert! Have the words of a book ever sat atop your chest, making it hard to breathe? The following quote probably has more impact in context. So here goes.... The women of this reluctant missionary family, living in the Belgian Congo, are disillusioned and desperate. The father is rigid, pious and blinded by his own scars. The girls go outside their hut in the early morning to help a fearful friend. The youngest, Ruth Mae, is bitten by a poisonous snake. Starting the next chapter, the mother, Orleana, has realized she has lost her baby and we walk with her in grief. This part of the book is some of the most beautiful writing I have ever read. The words sit inside me, with a life of their own, touching my own grief and reminding me just how human it is. “As long as I kept moving, my grief streamed out behind me like a swimmer's long hair in water. I knew the weight was there but it didn't touch me. Only when I stopped did the slick, dark stuff of it come floating...
