Things Fall Apart is a title that frequently has popped into my mind during the past few years.
Its author, Chinua Achebe, lived three decades longer than my husband, but died on the same March day.
Where does “escape” fit into this?
Nelson Mandela described Achebe as “the writer in whose company the prison walls came down.”
Achebe’s prose contained the immense power of escape, of transport and a kind of freedom–possibly for the Nigerian author, who was paralyzed in a car accident and confined to a wheelchair, as well as for his world-wide audience.
Words can reveal, can take us away, can help us drift to sleep and pull us back to our waking lives. Billy Collins wrote:
“All late readers know this sinking feeling of falling
into the liquid of sleep and then rising again
to the call of a voice that you are holding in your hands,
as if pulled from the sea back into a boat….”
Words considerably less fluid and magnificent than Achebe’s and Collins’ form my own daily escape in so many ways, including the paradoxical escape that writing this blog provides: writing about what I miss beyond words somehow helps me break through the walls of my grief and join a wider world, realizing I am far from alone.
Love in the Spaces 
I read Chinua Achebe back in college, a long time ago, and just before I went to Africa for a summer’s worth of volunteer work. This brings back so many memories.
And, yes, words/writing/images can provide healing escape….
This is beautifully put. Feeling isolated and alone is terrible, but being able to reach through that into a realisation that you rest in a universal sea of grief and upset is somehow very soothing. To feel you are not the only one going through these horrible feelings, is comforting and reconnecting. I’m so glad you found a way to do this through blogging, you have made the blogsphere richer with your honest writing 🙂
FAR from alone!
things fall apart and with your writing, action, and photos you are creating a forward-looking, creative and more comfortable place for your family, friends, and you — love to all