Beautiful Boys

I am very tickeled to discover that Anne Lamott wrote a review for Beautiful Boy, included on the front cover no less. It's as if an old friend recommended this book just for me; "Knowing you Kimberly", (which she doesn't) "I know you will find this book irristable, full of pain yet beauty as well . . . full of reflection after what you went through with your own son." And those terms of endearment draw me in . . .

I am about half way through the book, and I went to sleep crying last night, even though I've made it through my own ordeal. I do have a friend I spent the evening with Saturday that is going through something similiar, as we speak, with her son. It is so very, very sad to me. She's got more fear and more pain on the horizon, and no choice is ideal. All the choices have their good points and their drawbacks. But as parents - as human beings - we can only make decsions based on what we've got to work with, and we have to remember that everyone, even our beloved children, have a free will.

I told her when she called, "I've got ears, and I can listen. I've got experience, I can tell you our mistakes and our triumphs but unfortunately I am short on answers since we never found the answer for our son." But after sharing and listening she told me she had a clearer picture of what to do, and had found renewed strength to do what she needed to do. I do not know what it was that I said that gave this to her, but we often have no idea how profound our simplest words can be to another person, often without our ever knowing it.

Quote: You can never tell what passes through a man's heart by the look on his face.

In sexual abuse class a young woman once said, quite abruptly, "I'll tell you straight up, I hate God!" I was a bit stunned, especially being a babe in Christ just developing my relationsip with Jesus. However I would discover later on (like that night driving home) that I too hated God (didn't know it until she said that). And that realization is when my true healing began . . . .


I have four beautiful boys . . . . I pray that whoever reads this never has to go through the horrors of drug addictions, children that break the law and alcohol abuse. But even if you do they will always be beautiful to you . . .