Between Two Kingdoms: A Memoir of a Life Interrupted

by Suleika Jaouad

What if I stopped thinking of pain as something that needs to be numbed, fixed, dodged, and protected against? What if I tried to honor its presence in my body, to welcome it into the present?

Healing is figuring out how to coexist with the pain that will always live inside of you, without pretending it isn’t there or allowing it to hijack your day. It is learning to confront ghosts and to carry what lingers. It is learning to embrace the people I love now instead of protecting against a future in which I am gutted by their loss.

May I be awake enough to notice when love appears and bold enough to pursue it without knowing where it will lead.