Introducing Wednesday Words!

I've been trying to figure out a fun and interactive feature to host here at Twirly Reads for months now, and up until today - I had no idea what it would be. This morning as I rolled out of bed, it hit me. Finally. As some of you may know I blog over at The Hob and this summer I started a weekly feature called Wednesday Words.

It's fairly simple - I'll pick a quote at random (or a reader will submit one) and discuss it and then open it up for discussion from our readers over at The Hob. It is one of my favorite things to do and with every quote, I find myself thinking harder and seeing them in other ways than I may have the first time around. You can see previous posts over at The Hob for a general idea of how they turn out.

I figured, why not bring it into the book blogging world? I know we all have stacks of quotes that mean something to us, that touched us in some way, the quotes that stick in your mind and the ones that become something like your own motto.

The quote I chose to kick start this is one that hit me hard, a quote that has stuck with me through the good and bad and one that I feel many people can relate to. The quote comes from My Sisters Keeper by the fabulous Jodi Picoult.

“Do you know how sometimes - when you are riding your bike and you start skidding across sand, or when you miss a step and start tumbling down the stairs - you have those long, long seconds to know that you are going to be hurt, and badly?”

In so many ways this quote is something that I can relate to so perfectly that it hurts. This is one of those quotes that hit me so hard it left me breathless. This is a quote that defined so many aspects of my life and a quote that so accurately describes what I may have struggled to describe in the past. 

The most recent experience I could use to describe this quote would be this past Feburary when my grandmother died suddenly of a massive heart attack. For so long before that, I had always wondered what it would be like, how I would react and what would happen in the minutes, hours and days after. I hated myself so many times for even wondering something like that, but with so few experiences with losing a close family member - it was something that frequently crossed my mind. 

I knew the morning that my phone started ringing before 6am, what was going on. I knew that it was my mother before I even had a chance to look at who was calling and I knew exactly what was happening. There was no other reason why she would be calling so early and so frantically - my cell phone, the house phone, my brother's phone and my cell phone before she finally was able to wake me. 

I remember stumbling out into the hallway to give the phone to my grandmother and sinking onto the empty mattress as she spoke quietly to my mother and I knew without even having to hear my mother's words what was happening. I knew that her mother was dying, I knew my grandmother was dying. It took three words for the news to slowly begin to sink in: "I'm so sorry."

And I knew in that moment - just like the quote says - you're skidding or tumbling and you know you are going to be hurt badly. There's nothing you can do to stop it, everything is happening so quickly and so slowly at the same time. You know the pain is coming and there isn't a single thing that you can do to stop it except to keep tumbling down.

There wasn't anything I could do stop everything from tumbling, or the pain. None of us expected it to happen, and certainly not like it did. The next few minutes and hours went by in a blur. I remember telling family and friends, but nothing felt real. I a lot of ways, it still doesn't and it's almost been an entire year since she died. 

I knew the moment that the phone call came in that I was going to be hurt, and badly - but I kept tumbling and going through the day and months ahead knowing that I couldn't stop the hurt or that I couldn't have stopped it from happening. Despite all the pain, the hours of trying to take back the thoughts and the things I said in those early hours. It hurt. The entire experience hurt, and it still does. 

This quote speaks so clearly to me right now more than ever because I've been there. I have been in that terror filled moment and knowing I am falling, tumbling and skidding and that the pain is inevitable, but there wasn't anything I could do to stop it from happening. In that moment like in so many others, I had to let myself continue to fall and the hurt sunk in.

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I couldn't have picked a better quote to launch this new feature because it is so touching and so though provoking. It is a quote that I know so many of us can relate to at some point in our lives. I'm really looking forward to seeing the quote you pick and share.

Don't forget to check out what other bloggers post for the week and drop a comment on their entry. Discuss the quote, tell them what you think and how/if you can relate to the quote they've chosen. I'm really looking forward to seeing what everyone picks and I'm so excited to launch this feature!