A Little Milestone
One day in late May, the last time we set foot in the academy as the previous school year wrapped up was my youngest’s Graduation. The day before that, my eldest kid had her Moving Up ceremony. These were milestones that we celebrated with food. On to the next level! Soon, all my kids will be in high school. Ruminating on it now, I think each person’s little life is composed of a series of milestones and impactful moments. A little life that we might miss if we don’t pay attention, don’t collect the memories, and if we just blink. So, celebrate milestones, be thankful for them, they are not just little milestones.
A Little Sadness
That same day, I received unbelievable news that one of my high school friends had gone home to the Lord. 😢 At that time, the book I was reading was A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara. It’s about four close college friends and their lives, thus, I doubly felt the sadness the book portrays. I felt it’s a shame that my friend will not be able to witness his children’s milestones anymore. No more moments spent with his loved ones. Simple things such as sitting and talking about whatever will not be the same in the future. One of my oldest friends is gone now, it is actually a big sadness.
A Little Friendship
You won’t understand what I mean now, but someday you will: the only trick of friendship, I think, is to find people who are better than you are—not smarter, not cooler, but kinder, and more generous, and more forgiving—and then to appreciate them for what they can teach you, and to try to listen to them when they tell you something about yourself, no matter how bad—or good—it might be, and to trust them, which is the hardest thing of all. But the best, as well.
― Hanya Yanagihara, A Little Life
Contrary to the friends in the book who became close in college, my lifelong friends were from high school (save for one). They are the ones who have literally seen me grow up and grow old…er. They are the default people I invite to big events in life, the godparents of my children. I think of them when I want to hang out; and when I see something which reminds me of them, I tell them. Aside from a relationship with the Lord, I wish for my children friends who will accept and appreciate them. Lifelong ones who will be honest and whom they will be grateful for. People who will love them through their mistakes, who will pray for them. A friendship, little but true.
Have you read this book? What do you think comprises a little life?
A Little Life follows four college classmates—broke, adrift, and buoyed only by their friendship and ambition—as they move to New York in search of fame and fortune. While their relationships, which are tinged by addiction, success, and pride, deepen over the decades, the men are held together by their devotion to the brilliant, enigmatic Jude, a man scarred by an unspeakable childhood trauma. A hymn to brotherly bonds and a masterful depiction of love in the twenty-first century, Hanya Yanagihara’s stunning novel is about the families we are born into, and those that we make for ourselves.
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