Here we are , almost at the end of 2024 and maybe all of us are wondering about the next year. Is there something that we didn’t do that we were supposed to do? Will a 2025 resolution solve all of our problems?
It is common to have a lot of unanswered question at the end of any chapter , be it the end of a year, the end of a career or of a relationships. Endings can be difficult or easy, liberating or agonizing, beautiful or disastrous. When we think of an end we often tend to associate negative feelings with it. Do endings have to be sad?
I don’t have the answer to this question but the idea of endings has come across my mind several weeks ago when I was thinking about the theme for this year’s book contest.
This years’s contest subject is BEREAVEMENT. I have dealt with the loss of my grandmother this year and it was the first time in my life when I did not know how to deal with it. A lot of unanswered questions are lingering. There is a mix of emotions during such a process, ranging from anger, guilt, remorse, sadness and confusion. I assume that with time the predominant feeling should be of peace. I am yet to reach that point.
My request for this year’s participants in the Books and life contest is:
Write in the comments below about a novel, a memoir, a poem, a theater play, any literary piece of your choice, that helped you cope with emotional turmoil during a personal bereavement moment. Maybe you have lost a relative, maybe a friend or a pet. A loss is a loss as it signifies the end of someone’s existence in your life. Explain to me and to everyone reading you why that particular literary piece helped you during your loss and end your commentary with an advice, from your personal point of view, that could help someone who is going through bereavement right now. There is no limit in how long your post can be.
The contest ends on 22nd of December 2024. Winners will be announced on the 23rd of December 2024.
- First place wins: 120 Hive
- Second place wins: 80 Hive
- Third place wins: 50 Hive
I will give you my personal answer to the theme that I have suggested for this year. My pick is a book written by the romanian filmmaker Cristian Mungiu called “Tania Ionașcu, bunica mea. O biografie basarabeană” ( Tania Ionaşcu, my grandmother. A basarabian biography”). This book healed a part of me while I was reading it. As Cristian also had to deal with the loss of someone dear to him I was able to find coping mechanisms in his own story that would help me out in mine.
Good luck to everyone!