personified sadness

i just finished reading this beautiful memoir of a writer who loses her baby a few days before he was to be born in april of 2006. she wanted to write a book about the experience because she didn't want that sweet little soul that never had a chance to be born to be forgotten or dismissed as anything less than an important life. as much as the book broke my heart, it was so beautifully written that it allowed me to read it and love it.

as it often does, there was a passage in the book that really spoke to me. when i read it i ached to write. it's about sadness and she personified it so perfectly.....

perhaps it goes without saying that i believe in the geographic cure. of course you can't out-travel sadness. you will find it has smuggled itself along in your suitcase. it coats the camera lens, it flavors the local cuisine. in that different sunlight, it stands out, awkward, yours, honking in the brash vowels of your native tongue in otherwise quiet restaurants. you may even feel proud of its stubbornness as it follows you up the bell towers and monuments, as it pants in your ear while you take in the view. i travel not to get away from my troubles but to see how they look in front of famous buildings or on deserted beaches. i take them for walks. sometimes i get them drunk. back at home we generally understand each other better.

to read more, check out elizabeth mccraken's new book- an exact replica of a figment of my imagination.