Kira-Kira

Last night Lily was reading her book, Kira Kira, and decided to stop for a bit. I offered to read a few pages to finish the chapter. In the story, an 11 year-old girl has a 15 year-old sister who is dying. I began reading and was just awestruck with the following passage in her book:

"Then I didn't feel like crying anymore. I just felt barren, my eyes felt dry. The sky was still gray. Everything was gray, the sky and the store and even my hand when I held it out in front of myself. I wondered if anyone else in history had ever been as sad as I was at that moment. As soon as I wondered that, I knew the answer was yes. The answer was that millions of people had been that sad."

I couldn't believe the words I was reading. They felt like they were being pulled right from my heart and my head. So many times I think to myself that no one else has ever been as sad as I have felt over these last nine months. But, I suppose I have always known that my feelings of grief are not exclusive to me. It was just so interesting to read the words aloud. Amazing how words on a page can touch someone so deeply and so completely. Yet another example of how books can change your life and perhaps even put a new perspective on it.