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The Light Between the Oceans
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Tom, Isabel and Hannah
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Don
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May 16, 2013 04:32AM
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I think I relate most to Isabel. There is something about the all consuming emotions of grief and anger that ties them together. The love of a child is so strong, I
(Grr, accidentally hit done before I had finished typing). I think I was in the middle of saying that love of a child is so strong that I can only imagine how completely debilitating it would be to lose your child. I understand why Tom felt he needed to confess and relieve the burden of guilt he had, and yet I'm not sure he understood how life altering his decision would be for Isabel. While he was protecting her from the law, HE was the one who sentenced her to live the rest of her life without her child. Even knowing it's the good and right thing to do, I'm not sure if I could forgive that.
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i think it's the first one of Tom's statements that really resonated with me. It's hard not to obsess over the past. Its a control thing. In my mind I likened the phrase to giving your life to God and letting Him take the lead. You can't really do that until you're willing to let go. For me that choice is not a one time thing. I find that I need remind myself to do that time and time again. "Let go, and let God..."What did you think of the phrase?
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Don wrote: "What do you think of Tom's decision to "take the fall" for keeping Lucy? What about Isabel letting him? Why does Hannah go to see Tom? Which of these three characters are you most drawn to and why?..."I really related to Tom the most, and then probably Hannah. Tom seemed to be the type of person who deep down always wants to be kind to everyone and then feels bad that he knows he falls short and can't do that. Hannah I related to because imagine how awful it was that she had no clue what happened to her baby. Isabel, on the other hand, had full knowledge of what happened to her children, and as cruel as that sentence sounded that I just typed, the constant "what-if's" in Hannah's life, to me, are much worse than actually knowing you may be harming someone else.
Don wrote: "Towards the end of chapter 36 Tom tells Izzy, "I've learned the hard way that to have any kind of a future you've got to give up hope of ever changing your past." What do you think of that? Yes, Heidi, I agree with you to Let go and Let God. I am also glad that I am not the only one struggling to remind myself of this phrase. I am a really bad worry wort so I often turn to passages from Matthew 6:25-34; which talks about trusting God always. Notice it does not talk about worrying about the past!
Matthew 6:25-34
New King James Version (NKJV)
Do Not Worry
25 “Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? 26 Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? 27 Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature?
28 “So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; 29 and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 30 Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?
31 “Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. 33 But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. 34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.
