Book in Hand

"Birth of this book:
I remember the exact moment this book was conceived--in my psychotherapy office in the mid afternoon, (crows cawing in the Eucalyptus trees outside) talking to a woman who had been tortured as a child. I was encouraging her to rejoin the world that she was exiled from. She was not the first person I had worked with who felt shame and self-hatred because of what had been done to her, or what she had done; and who needed encouragement to see herself as worthy enough to reenter life--to reconnect to friends, family, community and spirituality. Up to that time I would recommend books and movies about people who had overcome situations which could easily have suffocated their will to thrive. Besides the grueling work of psychotherapy, these maps of other people's journeys back from exile were all I had to offer. I was about to recommend several volumes to this woman when the thought came to me, "I wish I had one book filled with these stories to hand to her." I saw an image of my hand extended out with a book held between my thumb and fingers. That first thought was immediately followed by another, "I would love to collect those stories myself." In that moment, this book was conceived."

The above quote opens the introduction of my book Redemption Stories, Unwasted Pain. Yesterday the first copies arrived from the Publisher and the feeling of holding them in my hand was overwhelming. I felt joy, delight, and relief...a deep soul relief of accomplishment of a task that had taken a long time, that I had turned my back on several times, and that was now real. That sounds so simple: real. But the project had started simply as an idea. I could have thought, "Good idea." and forgotten about it. But instead I followed it, and now the idea was a real book in my hand.