Shark Heart

by Emily Habeck

The best he had to offer anything was right now. And maybe that had always been true.

What a tragedy it is, being a woman, she thought with relief after another negative pregnancy test. I would rather be a million other things.

The main ingredient in transformation was not magic. It was pain.

The surface of love was a feeling, but beyond this thin layer, there was a fathomless, winding maze of caverns offering many places to see and explore.

Feelings fled under pressure; feelings did not light the darkness. What remained strong in the deep, the hard times, was love as an effort, a doing, a conscious act of will.

joy and grief are human birthrights, but mostly, being alive is everything in between.

Dying is similar to changing, but dying and changing are also very different.”

faith lived in the darkest rooms.

Lewis realized he did not fear death but grief, the ache of being alone and mangled by change.