People who lose children have their hearts warped into weird shapes. Some try to deny it has happened. Some pretend it hasn't. Losing friends or parents is not the same. To lose a child is beyond comprehension. It defies biology. It contradicts the natural order of history and genealogy. It derails common sense. It violates time. It creates a huge, black, bottomless hole that swallows all hope.
Interpretation
Losing a child fundamentally alters a parent's emotional landscape, creating an incomprehensible void that affects their very being.
This quote by Michael Robotham highlights the profound and unique grief experienced by parents who lose a child. It suggests that such a loss is so extreme that it challenges the natural order of life, making it difficult for parents to cope with the aftermath. The metaphor of a 'huge, black, bottomless hole' vividly conveys the deep despair and hopelessness that encompasses their experience, illustrating that losing a child is unlike any other loss.
In practice
You could use this quote at a memorial service for a parent who has lost a child.
One of the strange things about friendship is that time together isn't cancelled out by time apart. One doesn't erase the other or balance it on some invisible scale. You can spend a few hours with someone and they will change your life, or you can spend a lifetime with a person and remain unchanged.
Golf is like life in a lot of ways - All the biggest wounds are self-inflicted.
‘How do you juggle it all?’ people constantly ask me, with an accusatory look in their eyes. ‘You’re screwing it all up, aren’t you?’ their eyes say. My standard answer is that I have the same struggle as any working parent but with the good fortune to be working at my dream job. Or sometimes I just hand them a juicy red apple I’ve poisoned in my working-mother witch cauldron and fly away.
Life I love you, all is groovy.
I miss Saturday morning, rolling out of bed, not shaving, getting into my car with my girls, driving to the supermarket, squeezing the fruit, getting my car washed, taking walks.
And I can't be running back and fourth forever between grief and high delight.
Do you ever wait for the longest day of the year and then miss it? I always wait for the longest day of the year and then miss it!
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