I will find strength in pain.

Wow. The Girl with a Pearl Earring has really taken me by surprise! I am a few chapters away from finishing the book but it is very different from what I thought it would be. From what I read this week, Griet finds out that her neighborhood is under a total quarantine because of an infectious illness in Delft. She panics and but later finds out from Pieter (a friend at the meat market) that her younger sister had died in the outbreak. Griet is devastated and immediately feels guilty that she wasn't there for her sister and her family at home. But as time passes on, she gets back into her paint mixing in Vermeer's art studio. It's therapeutic to Griet. 
     This week, I got back into the other book I am reading, Columbine. Both of these books have hit home personally. Like all of my other posts, losing both of my grandparents this year has been an enormous struggle. Each day is a struggle, having to hold in a lot of pain and heartache. And, each day, having to find the strength to move forward and recover. Easier said than done though. But I'm not using this blog by any means as some sort of guilt tactic. It is a true pain that will never go for me. Anyways,in one of my favorite songs, The Cave by Mumford and Sons they say, "I will find strength in pain." In both The Girl with a Pearl Earring and in Columbine, characters/ people learn to find strength in pain and find their own ways of mourning their losses. When you lose someone, at times, it seems like you run purely on strength itself. Strength to keep it together. Strength to live life. Strength to move on, but never forget.