“We are breathless but we love the days. They are promises. They are the only way to walk from one night to the other.” – from The Bright Hour: A Memoir of Living and Dying, by Nina Riggs.
The author, diagnosed with Stage 4 metastatic breast cancer at age 37, a poet, wife, mother of two young sons, did not survive to see her words immortalized in this recently (June 6, 2017) published memoir. You may be thinking, “Oh no, another depressing cancer book!” – but this book is not only a legacy for her family but also truly a gift to us all.
Why did I choose to read this seemingly depressing work after having such a life reaffirming experience as walking the Camino? Well, certainly the accolades in the New York Times Book Review played a role. But this book is not about dying, but rather a treatise on how to seize the opportunities of each day we are alive. It was as life reaffirming as the Camino.
Each of us, with each passing day, is one day closer to the end of our lives on earth. For Nina Riggs, this time was more finite, knowing that the ravages of her rapidly spreading malignancy would soon take her away from her seven year old and ten year old sons, her adoring husband, her close circle of family and friends. Yet she approaches this devastating situation with the focus on truly experiencing and celebrating each day, with its simple joys, profound sorrows and insurmountable fears. During her two-year struggle, she also must endure the pains of losing her own mother to cancer (multiple myeloma), yet relishing the lessons her mother taught her on how to die with grace and dignity. Through it all she will draw you into her life, and I suspect that you too will learn to appreciate each day as a gift – and as a promise that helps us in the bright hours to go from one night to the next.
Camino Musings 