Heartwood
The Art of Living with the End in Mind
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- $14.99
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
Winner of a Gold Nautilus Award
Featured on Katie Couric Media's "37 Life-Changing Books You Won’t Be Able to Put Down"
“We can do extraordinary things when we lead with love,” Barbara Becker reminds us in her debut memoir Heartwood.
When her earliest childhood friend is diagnosed with a terminal illness, Becker sets off on a quest to immerse herself in what it means to be mortal. Can we live our lives more fully knowing some day we will die?
With a keen eye towards that which makes life worth living, Barbara Becker—a perpetual seeker, a mom, and an interfaith leader—recounts stories where life and death intersect in unexpected ways. She volunteers on a hospice floor, becomes an eager student of the many ways people find meaning at the end of life, and accompanies her parents in their final days.
Becker inspires readers to live with the end in mind and proves that turning toward loss rather than away from it is the only true way to live life to its fullest. Just as with the heartwood of a tree—the central core that is no longer alive yet supports the newer growth rings—the dead become an enduring source of strength to the living.
With life-affirming prose, Becker helps us see that that grief is not a problem to be solved, but rather a sacred invitation—an opportunity to let go into something even greater…a love that will inform all the days of our lives.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Minister Becker debuts with a stirring chronicle of the events, moments, and stories that led to her reconciliation with mortality. The death of Becker's friend from cancer at age 40 (a "struggle that made me profoundly unsettled") inspired her to look back on how she has dealt with her own misfortunes of miscarriages, sickness, and accidents. Particularly affecting are the chapters that focus on the bittersweet surprises of hospice care, such as Becker getting closer to her mother and finally understanding her mother's zest for life while witnessing her dying days. Becker also reflects on how to respect the long-dead, such as the creation of a Zen "water children" ceremony in the park "to honor the losses of children, born and unborn, in the community." The final chapter reckons with one's own mortality, specifically Becker's multiple cancer scares, how these brought on feelings of peace, and the admittance that those peaceful feelings were fleeting. Becker's eloquence is a salve for confronting a difficult topic: "There was a tremendous sense of freedom in catching even a tiny glimpse of this web of interconnection, as if nothing existed outside its beautiful cosmic structure." This will be a comfort for anyone contemplating their own mortality, or those in search of advice for others.
