In My TBR Stack:

Wisdom: Apprenticing to the Unknown and Befriending Fate
by Paul Dunion EdD
Gatekeeper Press
Trade Paperback


From the author's website:

It may be time to let go of the naivete that our technological devices will magically reveal the nature of absolute truth, or that some alluring formula will serve our need for immediate gratification and penetrate life’s mysteries. We seem to have forgotten that it is by the light of wisdom that we begin to understand who we are and make some sense of the journey we call life.

Wisdom – Apprenticing to the Unknown and Befriending Fate tells a story of what it means to apprentice to the unknown. It offers a strong plea - stop trying to get life right and allow life to get you right.

Such an allowance happens over time as the ego comes to know defeat and the illusion of its sovereignty. The wisdom path must be walked with curiosity and honesty, letting ourselves admit that we are employing some form of bypass that can allegedly circumvent life’s unpredictability and insecurity. Apprentices become increasingly informed by letting go of what is out of their control and learning to find the courage to address what is in their control. The reader learns what it means to remain a student of life, less enamored with being impressive, and as the need to perform and achieve atrophy, gains a devout receptivity to all that fate desires to teach. Wisdom is a verb. It is the apprenticing in a constant state of inquiry.

In My TBR Stack:

'Til Health Do Us Part: One Woman's Extraordinary Story of Healing
by Julie Rooney
Gatekeeper Press
Trade Paperback

From the author's website:

Julie Rooney was forty-eight years old in the summer of 2010, and to anyone looking in from the outside, she appeared to be living the dream. She and her husband owned houses in Silicon Valley and Hawaii, flew first class and stayed in five-star hotels. Their four children were all in college.

But Julie was on her last legs. She suffered from Addison’s disease, Crohn’s colitis, diabetes and hypothyroidism, and after years of synthetic steroids she weighed almost 200 pounds. She had blood drawn more often than most women had their nails done. The bones in her feet were as brittle as glass, and the team of doctors who had cared for her for years had run out of ideas.

“If your illnesses don’t kill you,” her endocrinologist told her, as gently as she could, “the drugs will.”

And then, when Julie had nearly given up hope, a scrap of paper with a hastily scrawled name and a phone number changed her life. Eighteen harrowing months later, against all odds, she had weaned herself off all her medications and her labs had come back normal for the first time in more than ten years.

The lessons she learned during her extraordinary journey of healing will resonate with all those who have struggled to regain their health, and more importantly, to understand their own role in the process.