Life's Lessons in a Simile

"The painful things...seemed like knots on a beautiful necklace, necessary for keeping the beads in place."

Last night, I finished reading The Red Tent by Anita Diamant. This simple line, written ¾ of the way through the novel, moved me to tears and prompted this blog post. 

Diamant’s simile poetically gave purpose to the co-existence of joy and pain in life. 

The novel is a beautiful fictional story about Dinah, a woman briefly mentioned in Genesis 34.  Dinah has a hard life, one filled with loneliness, loss and trauma that is difficult to imagine. She also experiences great joy through rich female relationships and love. Even during her times of suffering, Dinah has the ability to find pleasure and meaning in simple things like gardening or enjoying a cup of beer with a friend. With this, she reminded me a lot of Mariam and Laila from Khaled Hosseini’s A Thousand Splendid Suns. 

I admire each of these women and their heroic spirit, albeit fictional, through life's hardships. I am awestruck by their ability to feel joy from the sun’s warmth or a cup of tea despite unimaginable tragedy in their lives.  They give me pride in a woman’s strength and ability to endure, and hope for my own potential.

I have always disliked the cliché “everything happens for a reason.” But now, instead of cringing when I hear it, I will think of the “knots on a beautiful necklace” and believe that life is more beautiful and rich with each struggle that one experiences and endures.