Laura Brooks’s Reviews > The Good Left Undone > Status Update

I have told my grandchildren the story of the elephant…The elephant died at the end of the story, but through the years, I changed the ending…I let the elephant live. Dear family, you are the author of your destiny. In your hands is the ending of your story and the start of a new one each time a baby is born. God knows what He’s doing.

She had not wasted time. Women rarely did. They squeezed each moment out of the day serving others. But the good left undone? Had she been enough? Done enough?…Her final desire was to leave this world in a state of grace. His will be done….The only thing left for her soul to do was the business of her salvation. Matelda took a deep breath and did not cough. Her lungs opened to the sea air like a bellows.

“I don’t think that the sky and the sea have ever looked the same twice in my lifetime,” Matelda commented. “There’s always something new.”

“I still miss my mother. Isn’t it funny? You forget plenty, but never your mother.”
“Maybe that’s all you need to remember,” Olimpio said quietly, remembering his own mother.

When an immigrant loves their new country, it changes the country for the better.

John McVicars had been a squall that blew through Domenica Cabrelli’s life. She learned that time could not be the measurement for the things that lasted. Sometimes what endured was that which changed us in a matter of moments, not years.

When considering the future, contemplate these things:

Death, than which nothing is more certain

Judgement, than which nothing is more strict

Hell, than which nothing is more terrible

Paradise, than which nothing is more delightful

Saint Bernard of Clairaux…encouraged us to reflect on the past. Make peace with it. You cannot control the evil done to you. You cannot turn back and right the good left undone. You cannot make up for the time wasted. But you can earn your salvation. Open your heart to His love. All is forgiven. We find strength in our confession. And we need it…

The haves are the haves until they have not.

Every place is holy when the sun goes down.

The love of God makes me question my life, and that same love gives me the answers when I need them too.