Life Worth Living Novels & Stories

Always knowing when I needed him. "You okay?" he asked. "No," I admitted. "I'm terrified for them. For everyone choosing love. For everyone making themselves targets. I'm terrified we'll lose them. All of them. That love will destroy them. That I'm watching everyone I care about choose death." "You're watching them choose life," Thorne corrected gently. "Real life. Full life. Meaningful life. Not survival. Not safety. Not protected existence. Real life. That involves risk. Involves vulnerability. Involves potential death. But also involves meaning. Joy. Love. Everything worth living for. They're not choosing death. They're choosing to really live. There's difference."

In the year of longing the latter wasn’t an option. They were condemned to vegetate until even the core-healthy would wish for the end, as their life would feel deader than death could ever. All the time they kept invoking the high value of life, but ignored what living really meant. The laughter of a grandchild, gentle hugs among a group of friends, songs sung with strangers in a late night bar, or high emotions shared with others. Those were the things which gave a value to life, not the beating of a heart. It isn’t worth a dime without something that makes you want to keep breathing. Because a heart that beats, but no longer feels, might survive, yet won’t ever come alive.