I read quite a bit. I don’t read for speed or for quantity - I read for comprehension. This book, Everything Happens for a Reason: And Other Lies I’ve Loved, is the rare book that compelled me to nearly finish it in one sitting.
The story of the author’s journey with Stage IV colon cancer, a 33% chance of living, and all this after just giving birth to a child.
“I used to think that grief was about looking backward, old men saddled with regrets or young ones ponder should-haves. I see now that it about eyes squinting through tears into an unbearable future. The world cannot be remade by the sheer force of love. A brutal world demands capitulation to what seems impossible - surrender.” - “Everything Happens for a Reason”, Kate Bowler
That passage stunned me. Even when life turns its face and shows us its most brutal nature, our and only strategy is to accept life with open arms - advance towards it. Allow the impediment to action advance our action.
Throughout the book you’ll see Kate battle the heart’s desire to obsess and control against her mind’s Stoic (with a capital “S”) resolve to accept fate and face death as a friend.
I don’t usually write about books. This one, this one is worth it.
