Grief is a funny thing. It hits people in different ways. For me, part of it is that I don't much feel like putting up blog posts or things like that—it just doesn't seem important to do so.
I lost a friend a few weeks ago. One of the sweetest, kindest, most spiritual people I've known. It wasn't as if we were best buddies or that I saw this friend often but...his sudden death still leaves a profound gap and it hurts that I didn't have a chance to say good-bye. And it resonates with all the other losses I've had in my life.
And I haven't felt much like posting to my blogs.
But...I'm also a writer and it is part of who I am to think as a writer. I find myself thinking about how different people handle grief in different ways. I remember how when it was my parents, I felt cold all the time. I note that this time, in this case, that isn't happening but odd moments bring the person to mind. I find myself noting, too, how others have and continue to react to this person's death—what an impact one life can have.
It is the individuality of the responses—as well as what they all have in common—that strikes me as a writer. If I were to put the death of a character in a novel, I know that each person in the book who reacted, would react in unique ways. Part of our job, if we are writers, is to illuminate the human condition and explore possibilities and in doing so perhaps give readers permission to be who they are in how they react to life and death.
So, my apologies for such a long gap between posts. Hug those people who are important to you and make sure you tell them so. Notice, if you are a writer, the wonderfully diverse ways the people you know react to life and death and try to show that diversity in what you write.
Wishing all of you the best,
April
PS On an organizational note, I've been asked when my next Book in a Week class will start and I'm tentatively thinking the last week of May or the first week of June.
