“What do you tell the fawn being eaten alive by wolves? What do you tell the child born into a house of abuse? The people digging mass graves when droughts caused famine and a whole community starved? The hurting and the ruined, tell them everyone you meet has something to teach you, that they were a bad person in a past life and whatever other lives. No…life can be hard and not for a reason. Sometimes it’s hard because it’s hard. Sometimes it’s hard a person’s whole life and that life is short and then they die just like plants die and maybe that’s it.” From Immortal North by Tom Stewart.

Do you believe in a reason? That someone (or some force) is operating on our lives to teach us lessons, achieve a greater good or a lesser harm, etc? That suffering is a planned intervention?

Me, I believe in causes, not reasons. That said, sometimes causes can be reasons. God leans down and pushes you off a cliff (or cures your cancer) because he feels like it. Karma from your previous life fucks you up in this one, like a case of bad genes. An intentional universe could have an intention for you, as you have an intention for the pig you’re lovingly feeding in its stye.

Anyway for hauntingly beautiful prose and heart-aching story telling, head to The Selective Bookworm and look for Immortal North by Tom Stewart. a novel about a widowed trapper and his beloved son living alone in the Canadian wilderness. Not everyone’s cup of tea, but I can’t recommend it too highly. FREE for the whole of July – along with twenty other high quality, original curated reads.