Title: Finding Blossoms in the Darkness
Author: Simin Sarikhani
Today I’m excited to bring you a spotlight post about Simin Sarikhani’s novel, Finding Blossoms in the Darkness. Read on for an interview with Simin and to find out more about the book!
Hello Simin! First off, who is your perfect reader?
This book is for anyone, at any age, who has an open heart, who is on a journey or who needs a message of hope. Life is always challenging us and demanding from us – but also rewarding those who keep their spirits free.
What books are on your bedside table?
My first mentor is always Zhubin, my son. He is my guide and messenger. And by my bedside, I always return to Elisabeth Kubler-Ross, Deepak Chopra, Gary Zukav and Dr Michael Newton. I find it hugely meditative and strengthening to revisit the teachers I love, and to go deeper each time.
When you wrote Finding Blossom’s in the Darkness, did you have a writing routine?
No I did not have a routine. I was grieving and it took me 10 years to make myself ready, and then I started bit by bit… In the beginning I did not know how to write or what the order was. But then I just knew the way it had to be. Crying and writing, crying and writing, keeping Zhubin by my side and following my heart. It was so hard to keep visiting the pain, but I had to show the darkness to then reveal the beauty.
Where do you write best?
In my garden. My tiny garden. I would sit on my little bench, surrounded by the flowers I had planted, watching the butterflies. Every year the Bleeding Hearts came back, even through the Canadian winter. I wrote in longhand on blank notebooks from the Dollar Shop, with pencil, and a dream.
Where did your inspiration for Finding Blossom’s in the Darkness come from?
From Zhubin. From the notes he left behind, and from the love we shared. And ultimately from the promise I made, to share his ‘words’. He said: you will never know where it goes and how many hearts it touches, generation after generation… But I also got inspiration from the enormity of the fact that we all will have to say goodbye to the ones we love. Each and every one. And it is so important to hold onto the hope that comes beyond that moment.
What are your hopes for reader’s to take away from reading Finding Blossom’s in the Darkness?
The light beyond the pain. Nothing could be better.
How can reader’s take your wisdom from Finding Blossoms in the Darkness and put it to use in the world?
My deepest and most sincere desire was to write this book and share my story that everyone of us will find a path through to the beauty and blessings that surround us, no matter how obscure this pain of grieving makes us. A belief that this amazing Universe is not cruel and that the energy of love never dies. We will be with our beloved children that we are mourning forever.
After my son passed, I found a folder containing a collection of letters – all addressed to me. Each one dealt me with a sledgehammer blow, leaving me shattered and weeping uncontrollably. Zhubin understood the impact that his death would have on me. His words were full of courage, inspiration and wisdom.
‘…this is not a book about loss, grief, sadness or pain, although, I was forced to face all of these beyond imagination. Instead, it is a tale of faith, hope, and finding inner peace and contentment- a belief that ‘all is well’. It is about becoming whole again.’
What are you working on next?
I am not a writer, I am a mother. But I will take this journey as long as it takes – so let us see what happens next. I am ready to enjoy life. That was the lesson I learnt, to take a bigger bite from life.
[About the Author]
A refugee from revolutionary Iran, Simin had fled her home, leaving all she had to make a new life on the other side of the world. Although no stranger to life’s challenges, she would face none so great as the death of her only child, Zhubin, at age 21.
This heartfelt account describes one mother’s journey through the unbearable pain of a child’s death to find what had seemed forever lost: hope, meaning, love and even joy.
Text about Guided by the letters her son wrote to her to be read after his death, and his other insightful writings, she was able to find light in the darkness. In this book she shares, not only her own story, but also Zhubin’s simple words, with the wish that they may also bring some comfort to other bereaved parents. author here