Over the years I’ve been told by many people that writing a letter is a good way to deal with big changes in your life. For instance writing a letter to your ex after a divorce, or to a loved one who has died. Or even to your body or disease after you have been given a life changing diagnosis. Pippa Stacey did just that. She complied a book of letters authored by different individuals who penned letters to the disease they suffer from.
Each author wrote a letter to their condition. Some expressed anger and told their condition how upset or sad they were at the things they took from them. Some talked about the things they missed doing that they can no longer do due to their health. While other were wrote about the what they have learned about themselves since they have been sick. The books authors had a very wide variety of conditions as well as a wide variety of thoughts, feelings & experiences living with chronic illness.
Pippa put together a great group of authors each who live with a wide variety of conditions. While there were conditions repeated no two letters were the same.
I truly enjoyed reading each authors letter and love the concept of the book.
There were several authors that I really related to and even marked “YES!” in the margin next to their letter. But one author said something that really resonated with me. Merete Graham said “You’ve taught me that seeing your life crumble apart between your hands is an opportunity to find your inner light and to follow it. To rise up.” This stuck with me. This is what I try to do on a daily basis but Merete put it so eloquently. That’s what we all need to do. We all need to RISE UP! That’s exactly what Pippa Stacey did but compiling this book. She went out on a limb and complied letters from all kinds of people with chronic illness and put them in one book! Truly fantastic. I would love to see more books like this done in the future to continue to raise awareness to the chronic illness community. I loved this compilation and look forward to seeing more work from Pippa in the future.
I highly recommend that you go out and get this book. I think it helps to see what others are going through and how they feel as they are dealing with their chronic illness. It helps to see that their are others out their living with the same or similar conditions deal with similar issues.
With Love.
Amber
I’ve not heard of this book before – I’m definitely going to check it out!