“The Samantha White book arrived this afternoon,” my friend wrote
in an email, “and I'm about 30 pages into it already. Boy, can I relate! Thank
you so much for suggesting it.”
I had mentioned to my friend—let’s call her Erin—that she
might enjoy Samantha’s memoir, Someone to Talk To: Finding Peace, Purpose, and Joy After Tragedy
and Loss, and Erin ordered Samantha’s book that very
day!
About 24 hours after Erin started reading Samantha’s memoir,
she sent another email: “What a gift…! Samantha’s path, experiences and emotions
are so very similar to mine that it is uncanny.… It is such a relief to hear
others felt or feel the same way I do.”
Before long, Erin wrote again: “On page 177 in Samantha's book she states
for the first time she has fibromyalgia. OMG! I knew it, I knew it, I knew it!
Both in our 70s, she and I have walked parallel lives on opposite coasts. No
wonder her words so resonated with me.…
“Other than the Bible, her book is probably the most
impacting and significant book I have ever read! Honestly. Our paths and
feelings are so very similar. On almost every page I could say ‘That's me!
That's exactly me!’ Only someone who has been there can have even an inkling of
the pain we suppress and try not to self acknowledge.
“Thank you again, Linda, for mentioning Samantha's book to
me. No longer feeling so alone, it is a comfort to read about someone who has
lived this and survived and, more importantly, thrived! Telling her story
helped heal her and it is a significant step in helping with my healing.”
Some of you—perhaps many of you—
fear your story is not worth telling.
You worry no one would want to read your memoir.
I hope you will reconsider and write your story.
You lived your story
so that,
like Samantha,
you can bless others with and through it.
Think how exciting and rewarding that would be.
Think of how moving it would be to learn
your story could help answer someone’s prayers.
Think of the way God could use your memoir
to bring healing and hope.
Put yourself in Samantha’s place: What would you feel if you
received messages like Erin’s?
Samantha emailed: “Passing Erin’s words on to me, the
message that my book is helping and inspiring her, was a blessing. It is what I
prayed for, all the time I was writing it. ‘Please let this book fly on wings
to those who might derive some comfort, courage and inspiration from it.’
Please thank Erin for me, for her words, which are an answer to my prayers.”
Did you catch that? Samantha prayed while she wrote her
memoir. She asked God to give others comfort, courage, and inspiration from her
experience and her memoir. How exciting is that?!
You, too, can pray while you write.
Who knows what God might do through your story?
In her earlier guest post here at SM 101, Samantha said writing
her memoir was “among the toughest, most draining, most rewarding things I have
ever done” but her painful past and the tough job of writing her memoir brought
about blessing and healing for her and others like Erin.
But there’s more to Samantha’s story. Personal Life Coach,
memoirist, and retired psychotherapist, she wrote:
“When I moved to another state I had to leave my private
practice of psychotherapy behind, and discovered that I missed doing my life’s
work and needed to develop a new practice, with a new emphasis. And so my life
coaching practice was born!”
Check out Samantha’s new website at http://LifeCoachSamantha.com
and sign up for her newsletter, Recipe for Healing, a once-a-month short
message of encouragement for surviving and thriving after tragedy and loss.
Be sure to click on Samantha’s earlier post about writing
and publishing her memoir. Take a few minutes to read it. You’ll be inspired.
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