Seeing Home A Little Differently

Telling others aloud how much I care about them is one of my better traits. Both my parents died knowing how much they meant to me, making this part of my life largely free of regret. At the same time, I've often noticed how great literature suggests there is significant power in the unspoken word. What was the last novel you read that clearly illuminated this important lesson?

A week later, I can see how that particular lesson had never fully landed with me until I finished processing Marilynne Robinson's "Home" (2008). In her unhurried, contemplative and richly wise prose, Robinson's characters speak softly and simply but what they don't say is often as revealing and loving as what they do. I suspect this book by this gifted author could be a game changer for me.

I will not stop telling those I love how I feel. But the lessons of "Home" about unspoken words will remain with me a long time. In my experience, those kind of lessons have a way of somehow working themselves into a life. What has been your experience?