Life covers many topics and that is what we learn about in this book

Imagine Directions Gatherings Sparks Gardens Bases Talks Vows Polar bears

A woman who, after years of suffering, finally gathers her courage and walks her own path. Year after year, Glennon lives as if in a fog, unable to find her way out. An unfaithful husband, alcohol, addiction, grief, frustration and abandonment, this is the author’s everyday life. Her struggles are countless. I suffer with her. 

The recognition factor is difficult, but sometimes I wake up and see some of the similarities that Glennon describes. Isn’t it strange that without knowing, you actually reflect on your own situation using the stories of others?

In the first chapter, Glennon describes herself as a caged cheetah. The wild lives inside the animal, with no opportunity to live wildly, freely as it is meant to do. I stop for a second and think at society at large. My interest is striking and automatically I start reflecting. Are we trapped? Do we have to follow and obey to everything society expects of us? How do we become free? Is more possible than we think? Freedom cries out, but what does it mean? Why do we have to be mainstream and like everyone else?

The book is straightforward and honest words permeate the book. The truth may sting for some of the readers, sometimes even for me. I have to be honest there. A little hard to put my finger on exactly what and why, but enough to make me feel pointed at. Not in the sense that I’m wrong, but something gnaws at my soul.

Throughout the book I ask myself many questions, more than I do when I read other books. Reflecting on why is hard. It just happens.

Now I can’t put myself into Glennon’s life as an alcoholic, an addict, and sad, despairing, dead inside. To relate to such a life is not possible. I am free and feel inner joy. Longing, faith, hope and curiosity. I have all these things. Unfortunately, Glennon doesn’t, or did not.

The book keeps waking me up. I stay awake and my thoughts go round and round, in circles and loops, disappearing, coming back with new questions.

Glennon describes brief episodes from her life as a mother where she remembers coming to life and looking at her life and the lives of others with different eyes. The disappointment on her part of having wasted so many precious years literally drowning her sorrows is heart-breaking. When that day comes when she meets Abby, the meaning of life one might almost say, in addition to Glennon’s three jewels, i.e. the children, a seed of hope and longing is sown for Glennon. It takes a long time for her to let it flourish because she is afraid, very afraid, terrified in fact, because what happens if it is nurtured.

CONCLUSION;
That by looking back we can see what we learned about ourselves and how that can help us in the future. When reading about someone else´s life, we can get clarity about our own needs and behaviour, which gives us clarity in a way we did not know about.