A Grief Observed

I just finished this short 4-chapter book by CS Lewis this morning. A very valuable read for anyone who as walked through the fog and sorrow of loss. I will add a few favorite quotes later.

Some food for thought (PS: I love that metaphor):
"Talk to me about the truth of religion and I'll listen gladly. Talk to me about the duty of religion and I'll listen submissively. But don't come talking to me about the consolations of religion or I shall suspect that you don't understand... And that, just that (our pithy fabrications of Heaven and things we can never know), is what I cry out for, with mad, midnight endearments and entreaties spoken into the empty air." The depth of despair where consolation cannot reach.

"There is, hidden or flaunted, a sword between the sexes till an entire marriage reconciles them. It is arrogance in us to call frankness, fairness, and chivalry 'masculine' when we see them in a woman; it is arrogance in them to describe a man's sensitivities or tact or tenderness as 'feminine.' But also what poor, warped fragments of humanity most meere men and mere women must be to make the implications of that arrogance plausible. Marriage heals this. Jointly the two become fully human. 'In the image of God created He them." Thus, by a paradox, the carnival of sexuality leads us out beyond our sexes."

"To see, in some measure, like God. His love and His knowledge are not distinct from one another, nor from Him. We could almost say He sees because He loves, and therefore loves although He sees."

"Once very near the end I said, 'If you can--if it is allowed--come to me when I too am on my death bed.' 'Allowed!' she said. 'Heaven would have a job to hold me; and as for Hell, i'd break it into bits.' She knew she was speaking a kind of mythological language, with even an element of comedy in it. There was a twinkle as well as a tear in her eye. But there was no myth and no joke about the will, deeper than any feeling, that flashed through her."