This Shining Life by Harriet Kline

Sometimes you read a book that hits you in just the exact way you needed at that moment. This Shining Life is a beautifully haunting book, and the more I think about it, the more in awe I am of the writer's skill. She draws you into the story, yes, but she also makes you experience the story. The same struggles and frustrations the characters face. You want to fight against what the characters are going through and the mess they make of things, but in the end you have to just love them and accept their flaws and ways of being. And in doing that, you might just have to accept your own, too. Masterfully done!

There's a theme throughout the book of searching for meaning, to know what it means to be alive. But it's the search itself that gives life meaning, whatever conclusions you arrive at. The hope and wish for meaning lends meaning in itself. 

At the end of the book, the author has written a short essay explaining the story's origins and the writing process she went through. One part especially jumped out at me: "Though I had glimpsed what it might be like to be a slide rider, I knew I'd never be one myself. But that didn't mean I wasn't living life to the fullest. My experience of clinging to the safety rail at the top of the slide was as rich and valid as the experience of letting go."

I think sometimes we watch Bear Grylls crashing through the wilderness, read about intrepid people who go zip-lining through Costa Rica, or hear about those who have relinquished everything and pushed every limit in order to plunge into their passions, and we think that life has to be that bright and loud in order to be fully satisfying. That you have to immerse yourself so intensely before you can soak up that precious moment and feel alive. We're always waiting for life to begin. But it doesn't take an explosion to set life in motion. The moment doesn't have to be technicolour. Life can be just as vibrant and fulfilling and intense lived on a calmer and more pastel scale. I can paddle in my backyard pool and feel just as alive and thrilled as the person who goes over Niagara Falls in a barrel. The key is awareness. Gratitude. Focus. A willingness to open our fists and grasp whatever is right before us.

A profound book I'm going to have to read again, to sop up every rich drop.