"The Year of Magical Thinking" by Joan Didion
An account of her experience during the first year after her husband died and her daughter's critical illness. Painful, poignant, powerful. She is a writer and some of the first words she wrote at this time were:
"Life changes fast.
Life changes in the instant.
You sit down to dinner and life as you know it ends."
While we all know this on an intellectual level, it is one of those things we need to experience it to really know it at a gut level. I knew this at a gut level 36 years ago when my brother was seriously injured in a helicopter crash. Our family life changed in that instant. I think this knowledge has contributed a lot to my living in the moment.
