Life's unexpected blows --the loss of a loved one, a marriage, a job, or one's health -- often seem unjust and bring intense and enduring pain. But those blows can also be our teacher.
In The Pummeled Heart Finding Peace Through Pain (Twenty-Third Publications) award-winning journalist Antoinette Bosco explains how painful experiences can be a catalyst for personal and spiritual growth which can eventually lead to a more vibrant appreciation of life and a more lasting peace.
Ms. Bosco knows of which she speaks; she is certainly no stranger to tragedy. She has experienced more than her share of sadness including the death by suicide of her youngest son, Peter, and the murders of another son, John, and his wife, Nancy.
Hemingway once said, "Life breaks us all, and afterward many are strong at the broken places."
Yes, pain can destroy a person. To grow strong at the broken places is a tough process that takes choice, determination, honesty and time.
Antoinette Bosco is one of those people who has managed to grow "strong at the broken places" and she is determined to help others, showing that they can get beyond their suffering by:
- reaching out for support from those who love them.
- moving on, doing any activity that gets them off self-centeredness and helps them focus outward.
- incorporating humor and laughter in their lives, recognizing those healing gifts.
- learning to forgive so that they can become free.
- trusting that life has meaning even ifthat meaning is couched in mystery.
Ms. Bosco shares the understanding she has gained from her experience of devastating personal tragedy and her book offers guidance to people struggling to recover from loss and grief.
Despite all of her personal suffering, Antoinette Bosco has managed to maintain an inner peace with herself and her world. By opening her heart to pain, she believes she has also opened it to love...and to peace.
