James Patterson
Imagine life is a game in which you are juggling five balls. The balls are called work, family, health, friends, and integrity. And you’re keeping all of them in the air. But one day you finally come to understand that work is a rubber ball. If you drop it, it will bounce back. The other four balls – family, health, friends, integrity – are made of glass. If you drop one of these, it will be irrevocably scuffed, nicked, perhaps even shattered. And once you truly understand the lesson of the five balls, you will have the beginnings of balance in your life.
–from Suzanne’s Diary for Nicholas, by James Patterson

It was on the discount table, stuck among the old calendars and cheap coffee table books, when I saw it. The cover art was a beach scene that reminded me of trips to Sandy Hook, N.J. as a child, and the blurb on the flyleaf was interesting – a backwards sort of romance, in which a woman who’s just been left by her lover, is presented with the diary his wife wrote for their son. (No, it’s not a cheesy bodice ripper).

I was expecting smut, and angst.

I got a gentle, sweet, simple story, of love, and life, and loss, and a really amazing lesson in balance. I read this book in one night, mostly, and fifteen minutes this afternoon. I’m going to digest it a bit, then read it again.

I’m just…moved. So moved.
And the wheels in my head are now spinning ever faster.
This book has inspired me to things I’m not ready to talk about just yet.

Go.
Read this book.