The Stunning Realization

The quote, “…tell of a woman who almost died…kept on living, again and again,” in the essay “One Moment on Top of the World” by Naomi Shihab Nye, is full of meaning. It tells how even when you’re at death’s door, there still is hope. It speaks of the importance of life as well as the importance of loved ones. That even in times grim war, there is still happiness and joy. In short, by having hope, people you care about, and an appreciation for life, there will always be a bright spark in your life.
Having hope is quite possibly what allows people to live through the challenges that they face in life. Because of hope, even when everything goes wrong, someone can still face it and go on to tomorrow. This is what let the nation recover from things such as the Great Depression or Hurricane Katrina. Although people’s lives were devastated and many were suffering, they lived by having a hope for a better future. Every time that I see a bad score on a test, I do not give up. Instead, I hope that next time I will learn the subject matter more ably in order to do better on the next test. Without hope, we simply could not go on with all the suffering that occurs in our world today.
One thing that is always certain to help a person in need is to have someone there that cares about them. There are many people in a person’s life that matters to them, parents, relatives, and close friends being just a few. The quote itself refers to Naomi’s sick grandmother, who begins to miraculously recover as soon as she hears that a certain someone was coming to see her. This is because humans are, since birth, conditioned to refer to the touch of another human being with safety and reassurance. Therefore, being close to another person often helps those that are recuperating.

Lastly, people often appreciate their lives and life in general after suffering from something life-threatening. Before her grandmother had fallen ill and recovered, Naomi did not have this realization. It was not until after the occurrence that she understood how precious life really was. The same happened to me when my grandmother died. At the time I was seven, so I did not understand the gravity of the situation but looking back I see how important it is to live. Due to this understanding, both Naomi and I comprehend that life is a thing to cherish, and not just after it has been lost. After all, the need to stay alive is what created nations and the world that we live in today. So a life changing experience makes a person appreciate life in general.
Naomi Shihab Nye’s quote in the essay “One Moment on Top of the Earth,” is a very powerful realization. She realizes the importance of life once her grandmother recuperates from a debilitating illness. Her grandmother healed by having hope, human interaction, and an appreciation for her life. With these, she survived and continued to live her life the way she wanted to.