I am indebted to Vicki Cottingham - author, blogger, speaker and fellow retreat leader - for kindly writing this review of my new book.
Here it is …
Pat Marsh’s book, Healing Life’s Wounds, has grown out of her years of leading healing retreats, and also her personal healing journey. It is a must-read for anyone who is ready to go on their own healing journey and is looking for practical tools to help them with their inner healing. The ‘Pause Points’ within the book provide the reader with a valuable resource which, if implemented, will be of continuing help throughout life.
The book’s content combines Pat’s personal experiences, where she writes openly about her own journey of healing, with the knowledge and understanding she has gained through researching the mind, body, emotions and healing. Pat looks at dealing with strong difficult emotions, such as fear, grief and anger.
She explains that forgiveness is a critical part of each of our journeys towards healing, and I found chapter 9 which focused on forgiveness really helpful and practical. Pat does not minimise whatever the cause for forgiveness may be, and she makes it clear that rarely can forgiveness be given immediately and that it is often a process.
I appreciated the examples she used throughout her book to illustrate her points as they helped me to understand what she really wanted the reader to grasp. Such as the broken vase, (a family heirloom) which she wrote about in chapter 3.
Throughout Pat’s book are ‘Pause Points’, and in Pat’s own words:
“they are important in helping you learn to connect with yourself in moments of stillness, in helping you to reflect, and in guiding you, as you progress through them, to a deeper understanding of how to work towards freedom from your debilitating emotions.”
The message that we get from Pat and her ‘Pause Points’ is that there is power in the pause, and we would benefit in implementing this small, but significant exercise in our own lives.
“Our stories include our failures and our losses, our wounds and our scars, and all those things we wish had not been part of our experience. For each one of us, those things will be different. But, make no mistake about it, we are all wounded in some way. It happens to us all. Life is like that. But that doesn’t mean that those wounds need to dominate our lives. If we are open to the possibility, there are ways to find healing of our inner wounds, and with that healing we can then begin to live a richer, fuller, more content and fruitful life.”
Pat’s book is practical, encouraging and filled with hope. If you are open as you read it, and put into practice her suggestions, it could be of help to you on your journey of healing.
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Vicki has a multi-faceted ministry that blesses many people. Why not check her out on her website.
