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In sweet company
I am home at last.
–Margaret Wolff
 I
feel as if I know these women - as if they are
friends of mine. Olympia Dukakis, Sister Helen Prejean, Grandmother Twylah Nitsch, Le Ly
Hayslip, Riane Eisler … They range in ages from
31-91 … They are writers, priests, Fullbright
Scholars, Seneca elders, freedom fighters,
historians, psychotherapists, dancers, authors,
mothers …
We hung out many
nights in the time it took for me to end my day,
slide between the sheets and feel soothed to
sleep by their stories. After a night with “the
girls” I always seemed to awaken extra energized
and optimistic. They gave me hope. They gave my
heart a home.
Before I met them I
met the woman who gathered them, Margaret Wolff,
author, In Sweet Company Conversations
with Extraordinary Women About Living A
Spiritual Life.
I
interviewed Margaret when I was hosting the
Get Ready For Love! Radio Show. A friend
gave me her book one evening and I went straight
home and started reading. It intrigued me from
the bold cover design to the fact that we were
neighbors to her eclectic mix of women. Timing
is everything. You see, I was in search of some
spirit for myself that night.
Margaret’s book
consists of fourteen interviews. Its creation
began sixteen months after a catastrophic car
accident in which she lost 80% of her peripheral
vision and much of her ability to process and
communicate information in a linear fashion. She
says “I wrote this book to carve new pathways
in my brain, to restore function and order and
meaning to my life.”
In it I met Le Ly
Hayslip, peasant girl, Vietnamese warrior,
international ambassador and author whose book
and life story inspired Oliver Stone’s film “Between
Heaven and Earth.” She writes God with a
little “g”, does not take freedom for granted
and advises us to “spend time alone so you
can discover how you respond to things when you
are not under the influence of others.”
And there’s
Sr.
Helen Prejean … her simple act of kindness,
becoming a pen pal to a convicted murderer on
Death Row, transformed her into an advocate for
compassion and her story into a film called
Dead Man Walking. She asks “What it each
of us were judged solely by the worst thing we
ever did in our lives?”
Each of Margaret’s
interviews end with a special Q & A. What do
you think is your greatest accomplishment?
What’s the secret of your success? Do you have
any advice you would like to pass on to others?
Looking back is there anything you would do
differently?
To know them and to
know how each of them answers, order your copy.
Savor it like I did – read just a few pages each
night and make it last. In Sweet Company
is an affirmation of what is possible for all of
us – you & me. Right now.
When you are done,
do pass it on to a friend …
Viveca Stone-Berry
is the founder of
Get
Ready For Love! Radio; Co-Author of
What A Dog Loves! and Producer of The
Fatigue Be Gone! Recovery Guide Series.
(c)
2005-2007
www.getreadyforlove.com
* topic * on-line book review
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