“Tiny Beautiful Things” delivers a strong, powerful message… grief is the price we pay for love.
Johannesburg, South Africa (09 April 2023) – I spent most of yesterday binging “Tiny Beautiful Things” – the heartbreaking story follows a woman who reluctantly becomes “Dear Sugar” after suffering what can only be called a midlife crisis.
“Dear Sugar” offers advice to readers on a wide range of topics, such as love, loss, family, career, and personal growth. Cheryl Strayed’s responses are characterized by their depth, compassion, and honesty as she draws from her own life experiences to offer practical and heartfelt guidance to her readers. Her advice column was originally published anonymously but the author eventually revealed her identity, which made the column even more engaging.
Her mother, Bobbi Lambrecht, suddenly passed away from lung cancer when Strayed was 22 years old, but she never fully dealt with it… this event had a profound impact on the talented author’s life and is a central theme in her memoir “Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail”.
But that changes when she is given a job that she never really wanted but needed – the “Dear Sugar” column. She is forced to deal with it all.
Her story is painted with heartbreak, tragedy and heavy emotion. Kathryn Hahn is unreal, and the younger version of her, Sarah Pidgeon, is absolutely captivating in her role. Also, the new series was produced by Reece Witherspoon and Laura Dern, so you know it’s going to be a goodie.
The message… grief is the price we pay for love.
I guess I related so much to the story because the parallels to me are so stark.
I’m a writer. My dad died. Suddenly. I receive so many messages on a daily basis from people who are in need of help that I sometimes feel like my own version of “Dear Sugar”. I am writing a book (kinda-almost-on-some-days). And I live with my sadness and grief every single day.
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Watching the series was a cathartic experience for me but it is based on her books, so I thought I would share some of my best quotes from her writing to help you through life’s challenges.
Here are 10 “Tiny Beautiful Things” to remember:
1. The best thing you can possibly do with your life is to tackle the motherf***ing shit out of love.
2. Nobody will protect you from your suffering. You can’t cry it away or eat it away or starve it away or walk it away or punch it away or even therapy it away. It’s just there, and you have to survive it. You have to endure it. You have to live through it and love it and move on and be better for it and run as far as you can in the direction of your best and happiest dreams across the bridge that was built by your own desire to heal.
3. We are all just walking each other home.
4. You don’t have a right to the cards you believe you should have been dealt. You have an obligation to play the hell out of the ones you’re holding.”
5. The useless days will add up to something. The shitty waitressing jobs. The hours writing in your journal. The long meandering walks. The hours reading poetry and story collections and novels and dead people’s diaries and wondering about sex and God and whether you should shave under your arms or not. These things are your becoming.
6. Let yourself be gutted. Let it open you. Start there.
7. We are all experts in our own terror.
8. Don’t surrender all your joy for an idea you used to have about yourself that isn’t true anymore.
9. The question isn’t whether you should stay or go. The question is: How would your life be different if you chose the latter?”
10. Forgiveness doesn’t sit there like a pretty boy in a bar. Forgiveness is the old fat guy you have to haul up the hill.
“Tiny Beautiful Things” is crafted beautifully into eight 30-minute episodes and is available now on Hulu and Disney+.
I hope you find as much joy in it as I did.
Okay. Love you. Bye.
by 