Glad No Matter What
by SARK at Amazon
Transforming Loss and Change into Gift and Opportunity
By Chris Dunmire
On November 15, 2010, publishers at New World Library released SARK's (Susan Ariel Rainbow Kennedy) newest book Glad No Matter What: Transforming Loss and Change Into Gift and Opportunity.
If you're experiencing hurt from loss or change (death of a loved one, job loss, relationship issues, moving) and need immediate comfort and perspective on how to deal with your feelings, you'll find this book helpful.
New World Library publicist Kim Corbin writes: "In Glad No Matter What, SARK explains how we can transform anything that hurts into something that helps. She explains that it's not what happens to us, but what we do with what happens to us that counts, as she offers practical tools for responding to life's circumstances in exciting and empowering ways.
Glad No Matter What is chock full of practical transformation practices that show how to:
- Experience new ways to live alongside change and loss
- Apply self-love liberally and skillfully
- Transform previous change and loss experiences
- Recognize the benefits of feeling all of our feelings
- Stay with ourselves in times of strong emotions
- Welcome and notice life's miracles"
As with most SARK books, this one is whimsically hand-written and includes journalesque vignetti from her life. When asked about her inspiration, SARK reveals that the "deaths of her mother and cat, and the end of a romantic relationship, formed the initial reason for writing the book."
I'm especially drawn to the cover photo showing Susan/SARK standing arms outstretched (like the little people characters she draws) in the middle of what appears to be a Chartres-style labyrinth at the edge of the ocean. Have you walked through a labyrinth before? If not, and you ever get a chance to, do it (find one near you at the Worldwide Labyrinth Locator).
Circular labyrinths are amazingly meditative, stress-relieving walking paths — not mazes you can get lost in. The experience of walking in silence with one foot in front of the other always centers me with the reminder that I can only live life taking one step at a time. SARK's use of this visual metaphor is appropriately clever.
As a long-time SARK fan for both her creative inspiration and inner healing work, I'm GLAD to have acquired permission from the publisher to include her book interview and two illustrated excerpts from Glad No Matter What on Creativity Portal (see SARK's author page).
The pieces I chose, "What To Do With Change + Losses" and "Why It’s Important to Feel Our Feelings and What To Do With Them," are supportive, nurturing, and full of wisdom for processing feelings and moving through change. If you enjoy the excerpts on Creativity Portal (not hand-written), I highly recommend that you experience how SARK colorfully penned and illustrated them in her book.
We get comfortable with the patterns and routines in our lives, but change is inevitable. Unexpected change shakes us up; the experience of being human is an ever-evolving dynamic full of twists and turns and connection to others who are also in a constant state of change. It seems an impossible thing at times — that we have the resilience to adapt and integrate the unexpected curves and carry on as we do, sometimes easier than others, but we do. At times we need extra support and assurance that we'll be okay and can get through it. And guess what? When we come out the other end of it we are transformed in some way.
SARK adds, "Transformation is always my greatest inspiration, and how we can literally 'change the form' of what happens to us and what we do with that, is the basis of this book. All of my changes and losses have been transformed into gifts and opportunities, and those gifts and opportunities create more GOODNESS and GLADNESS to share with the world." •
© 2010 Chris Dunmire www.chrisdunmire.com. All rights reserved. |
