Bittersweet

I recently checked out a book at our library titled "Bittersweet" by Shauna Niequist. The tag line is "thoughts on change, grace, and learning the hard way." I think it's funny how God can bring people or even books into our lives just when we need them.

I came across "Bittersweet" months ago, maybe even the first of the year, on a blog and checked at our library but had no luck. Later, I checked again and they finally had the book, but of course, the copy was lost. A couple of weeks ago, I was looking for a John Piper book and there it sat, just a few books over.

I didn't know much about the book except it had a picture of chocolate on the cover and it was a "girly" book. Can't go wrong with that right? When I began reading, I stayed very confused because each chapter was it's own topic and she would jump around to different times in her life. Finally, I realized it was a collection of essays, almost like reading a very well written blog.

She writes from a Christian perspective and covers a myriad of topics: job loss, moving, death, motherhood, marriage, and friendship.

There is a chapter titled "the closer you get" that reminds me so much of our move from Brenham. The night before we moved, we had dinner with our best friends and when we said goodbye, well...it was not pretty. My friend Karla and I were a hugging blubbering mess which set off a chain reaction of kids crying and I think the guys even got a little emotional. So Karla, if you ever read this book, that chapter is for you :)

What really caught me off guard while reading was her miscarriage. Shauna had a molar pregnancy after her first child and she writes openly about the loss. This is the first book I have read where I could relate and felt like the author had crawled inside my head.

I think it is such a God thing that I am entering the time of the year when we started the whole process and I am reading this book. So far, reading it has almost been like therapy for me. I will forever associate September and October with bad ultrasounds and miscarriages. I know I shouldn't, but I do. Please don't misunderstand and think that I am about to enter some great dark depression; I'm not planning to. I am in a much better place then I was a year and for sure two years ago. I am at peace and have truly accepted my circumstances. I just might be a little more reflective the next couple of weeks.

In the prologue she writes:

Bittersweet is the practice of believing that we really do need both the bitter and the sweet, and that a life of nothing but sweetness rots both your teeth and your soul. Bitter is what makes us strong, what forces us to push through, what helps us earn the lines on our faces and the calluses on our hands. Sweet is nice enough, but bittersweet is beautiful, nuances, full of depth and complexity. Bittersweet is courageous, gutsy, earthy.

Don't you wish you could write like her? I love that.

I highly recommend you read this book. I am not quite finished, so I can't vouch for the whole book.