"Profound essays on nurturing life while facing a terminal diagnosis, from the dedicated humanitarian and young mother whose writings The New York Times called "nothing less than a master class in how to be fully human". "I am holding both my hope and my grief together in the same hands. It is a loose hold, looser than I am accustomed to. My love is so much bigger than me." Nonprofit leader and minister Tallu Schuyler Quinn has spent her adult life working to alleviate hunger, systemic inequality, and food waste, first as a volunteer throughout the United States and abroad, and then as the founder of the Nashville Food Project, where she supported the vibrant community work of local food justice in Middle Tennessee. That all changed just after her fortieth birthday, when she was diagnosed with stage IV glioblastoma, an aggressive form of terminal brain cancer. In What We Wish Were True, Quinn achingly grapples with the possibility of leaving behind the husband and children she adores, and what it means to live with a terminal diagnosis and still find meaning. "I think about how my purpose may be the same in death as it continues to be in life-surrendering to the hope that our weaknesses can be made strong, that what is broken can be made whole," she writes. Through gorgeous prose, Quinn masterfully weaves together the themes of life and death by integrating spiritually nourishing stories about family, identity, vocational call, beloved community, God's wide welcome, and living with brain cancer. Taken together, these stunning essays are a piercing reminder to cherish each moment, whether heartbreaking or hilarious, and cast loose other concerns. As a mother, a kindred spirit, and a dear friend, Tallu Schuyler Quinn looks into our eyes with well-earned tears in her own and tells us the bittersweet truth: We are all searching for what has already found us-present and boundless love. This love will deliver us and never let us go."-- Provided by publisher.

"Many of the essays in this work originally appeared in slightly different form on Tallu Schuyler Quinn's blog at www.caringbridge.org/visit/talluquinn, in 2020 and 2021."

The meadow -- Angels in the architecture -- Ordained by something else -- Writing abides -- The things they carried -- The gift of a good name -- Filling up that kind of empty -- Up here on the shore -- A sleepy loop -- Knowing what you want -- Fired up 1 -- Becoming bread -- Lulah's larder -- Fired up 2 -- Thirst -- The owl and the pussycat -- Hair -- Rats -- The sugar on top -- Bones -- Blessings brightly lit -- Watermark -- Ordinary rituals -- A new knot -- Chickenman -- Drinking the poison -- Sensitivity -- Table in the wilderness -- How you pray -- Living with a body -- Food -- Going back to God -- That hard way -- Inside all this heartache -- May the road rise to meet you -- The salmon -- Larkspur -- Hale, hallowed, holy -- Normal days -- A loose hold -- As if -- Hugs and kisses for the journey -- The forest and the clearing -- Without dreams -- In you and among you -- Shelter -- Some of what it might be like.