“Stories are our lifelines, medicine, scripture, hope. If they didn’t give us something essential to our living, we wouldn’t bother with them.  In a world we mistrust, we can trust stories. They take us somewhere. They tell us the truth. They don’t feed us our thoughts; they force us to think. They show us a way to overcome what worries us. They assure us that we can prevail.  They show us a way to live well.”

Donald Mass, Donald Mass Literary Agency

“The part of the mind that reads a story is also the part that reads the world; it can deceive us, but it can also be trained to accuracy; it can fall into disuse and make us more susceptible to lazy, violent, materialistic forces, but it can also be urged back to life, transforming us into more active, curious, alert readers of reality." --George Saunders

We wouldn’t need books quite so much if everyone around us understood us well. But they don’t. Even those who love us get us wrong. They tell us who we are but miss things out. They claim to know what we need, but forget to ask us properly first. They can’t understand what we feel — and sometimes, we’re unable to tell them, because we don’t really understand it ourselves.

That’s where books come in.

They explain us to ourselves and to others, and make us feel less strange, less isolated and less alone. We might have lots of good friends, but even with the best friends in the world, there are things that no one quite gets.

That’s the moment to turn to books.

They are friends waiting for us any time we want them, and they will always speak honestly to us about what really matters. They are the perfect cure for loneliness. They can be our very closest friends.

Alain de Botton

Developing Empathy

My book is a story of common suffering. A suffering not unique in the experience of living, but nonetheless traumatic for me. Through reading, my suffering was informed and supported by others’ experiences. And stepping out of my experience, and into that of others helped me develop empathy. It was easier to feel empathy for others. Then I learned to feel empathy toward my self.

Discovering New Levels of Awareness

In my book you’ll also find a story of unraveling. Unraveling an embedded set of belief systems which no longer served me. Suffering jolted me out of thoughts and patterns which had informed a created self. Suffering invited me to rethink the mythology and cosmology of my life by reflecting on my foundational stories and interpreting their meaning in a new way.

Imagining A New Life

My story is also one of expansion and transformation. Reading deeply into the stories offered by others, stories of trauma, of journeys and arrivals, opened my imagination to new possibilities. Trauma produced in me a spiritual and imaginational contraction. The stories of others helped me expand and transform into the uncharted territory of rebuilding my life after loss.