A LASTING RIPPLE EFFECT: You Win, "Sarah"!

Sometimes life sends something so challenging that you're not sure how you can possibly manage, let alone pass through and come out on the other side with your mind, body and soul intact.

In Coming to Your Senses—Soaring with Your Soul, author Sally Veillette talks about how the confusion and pain of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome helped force her to discover new parts of herself. Using the illness as a “best friend,” rather than fighting it, was Sally’s secret that she wanted to share with others.

Someone heard her.

Sarah’s Story
Try to image what life might be like if two close family members were to commit suicide in the same year—a situation that “Sarah” [not her real name] recently faced. After her mother and daughter committed suicide, Sarah understandably went into a serious clinical depression. Like Sally, Sarah wasn’t going to stop until she found a way to open again to life and free her spirit.

When we saw Sarah’s dog-eared, highlighted, and page-marked copy of Coming to Your Senses—Soaring with Your Soul, and witnessed the “glow” that lit her face even as she recounted her harrowing experiences, we knew that she was very special, indeed. Proudly, we award Sarah as Winner of the Best-Loved Book Award.

Congratulations, Sarah. We love you. Your simple statement “This is a good book!” rang through. You can count on Coming to Your Senses, just as assuredly as the world can count on you.

Following is a story about Sarah written by Bernadette Martonick, revealing how a short meeting between two perfect strangers can leave lasting ripples in a pond. Why not learn from their example and open yourself more to life today?

Bernadette’s Story
I met Sarah at a talk that Sally was giving. Looking at Sarah seated across from me, I never would have guessed the tragedy that had only a year earlier overtaken her life. The strong bright face worn by the middle-aged woman looked up attentively from the well-used, dog-eared book in her lap. I learned that she had received the book from her therapist and had been eagerly working through it since.

Through the course of our group discussion, Sarah told us of her loss and of her decision to choose life. She spoke modestly, but her words portrayed such strength that something in my own soul stirred.

This was my third time to see Sally in person, and as her talk began I was still hesitant about this whole “glow” thing. I felt like I might have known “the glow” at one time, but that it was now lost to me. What did it really mean to open up and be my true self? Was I capable of doing that? I had ideas about what I wanted out of life, but was worried about the practicality of achieving those things. Basically I was stuck, holding my soul captive in a little box somewhere deep inside while my body to me through daily survival. And then Sarah spoke.

What she said and how she presented herself hit me almost instantly, then everything I had read and discussed with Sally just clicked. Here was a woman full of strength and passion for life, choosing to open herself up and reach out—even after having gone through something more traumatic than I could ever imagine. If she could be this vibrant and alive, so could I.

I felt the whole group take a deep slow breath after Sarah finished her story. Then I relaxed into my chair, and was startled as my passions almost literally jumped out to dance in front of me, freed. This was just the beginning.

I went home and began making my own dog-ears in Sally's book. I also began letting intuition take more control, and I continued to relax.

I realized that each person's life and growth is unique. Whether we are spurred by a specific tragedy or, as Sally writes in her book, “an inner confusion, something percolating under the surface, a creeping feeling that life can be more than a collection of non-stop activities, achievements, and occasional rewards,” our experiences push us to grow.

My experiences might be different from Sarah’s and from Sally's and from everyone else's, but we all have the ability to reach our true potential by opening up and following our passions. Now, at times when I feel myself pushing my true self back into that little box and tensing from anxiety, I take a deep breath and think of the presence Sarah held, her strength, and through the aide of her courage, her therapist, and at least one powerful book, she portrays the magnificence of the human spirit fully alive. Let's give Sarah the award for the Best-Loved Book, not because it was so well-used, but because she obviously used it to move forward, serving as a striking example for all.