Sugar is breaking my heart

If you are afraid of reading something that will break your heart into a million pieces and then clean it up and then break into a million more, then ignore this post. 

Otherwise, run to your nearest [insert whatever means you use to get books] and read “tiny beautiful things” by Cheryl Strayed immediately. 

This book is breaking my heart. 

With profoundly-titled chapter names  like ‘The obliterated place’ and ‘The known unknowns,’ Sugar (aka Cheryl Strayed) showcases the deepest empathy and toughest love most people could ever expect in their lifetime. 

It is a compilation of letters Cheryl received and responded to when she penned an online advice column. The questions she fields are heart wrenching in themselves. Her advice is the same. 

People are asking her to tell them how to move on in their lives after they’ve lost a grown child or an unborn child or lost their own childhood to abuse and other atrocities. Strangers share their darkest fantasies and ask her to tell them it’s ok or ask her how they can move forward. In response, she shares her deepest feelings and own horrid experiences in a show of empathetic advice nearly no one else could muster. Sugar is exceptional. 

I am new to the world of audiobooks and this is my third. I couldn’t say if her words would be more or less powerful if I were reading them to myself. But something about her voice delivering her wise words is so damn heavy. 

She tells it like it is, but with a perspective that is deeply insightful and honest. I need emotional breaks from his book. 

Sugar had a tough journey, as I am learning through her advice to strangers. And she is paying it forward, turning her hard-earned lessons into help for others in pain. I wish I had known about her column while she was writing it. I can think of a few meaningful questions on which I’d appreciate her viewpoint. It’s too late for that. But I am gleaning much from her powerful letters.