Hours

It is a long flight from Buenos Aires to Miami. It is (glorious!) uninterrupted reading time so I try to save this space for a book I expect will be a treasure.  In this case, I both wanted to read and hesitated to read because I already knew the ending.  The Bright Hour:  A Memoir of Living and Dying by Nina Riggs was beautiful.

I first became acquainted with Nina Rigg's story via a 2016 NYT "Modern Love" column about a couch.  This short anecdote, her writing style, and her Greensboro, NC base caught a piece of my heart and didn't let go.  In early January, I read another article about her husband, John, and Lucy, wife of Paul Kalanithi, in the Washington Post and knew Ms. Riggs' book would be the book for this journey.  [I've heard a lot of great reviews about "When Breath Becomes Air" but this year I've primarily been reading women authors and I wanted to give this heavy topic a woman's view first.] 

Chapter 22 is entitled "Faith" and I was particularly affected by:

"For me, faith involves staring into the abyss, seeing that it is dark and full of the unknown--and being okay with that.  And if I can achieve that--BREATH, STOP BREATHING, BREATHE--even for a quick moment, that is truly something. - p 276 (Kindle version)

I was unprepared that in reading the Afterword, I would finish the book exactly one year after her last breaths.  (I'm eternally grateful that the Delta flight crew is un-judging to crying readers.) Rather than being left with a feeling of sadness, this book is a wonderful reminder of our fragile moments, the wonder of laughter, and the gift of love. 

Add The Bright Hour to your reading lists.