Book Review

Finding Hope Again: Journeying through sorrow and beyond
By Peter Millar; Canterbury Press; Great Britain; 2003

I wonder if this book should come with a warning something along the lines of it being guaranteed that it will take you into the depths of your own losses and pain. You cannot help but be moved by what is written on these pages.

But what can be equally guaranteed is that you will be richly rewarded by reading it.

It is not just a bunch of words but profound insights into what the journey through sorrow is like, written by a man who, himself is on the journey, following the sudden death of his wife. Peter Millar enhances his own learnings and insights by drawing on the stories and experiences of others. There are also many powerful and beautifully worded quotes that touch into the heart of suffering.

This book validates and embraces the pain experienced but helps us to integrate it and move beyond it to hope and life again. It gives us a heightened awareness of and compassion for others who suffer in our world. It even helps us to make choices and take risks we might not have thought possible previously. One quote that expresses this, from Davna Markova says:

“I will not die an unlived life,
I will not go in fear
Of falling or catching fire.
I choose to inhabit my days ,
To allow my living to open to me,
To make me less afraid,
More accessible,
To loosen my heart
Until it becomes a wing,
A torch, a promise.
I choose to risk my significance:
To live.”

It highlights the value of ‘going on the journey through sorrow' instead of avoiding it or going around it and in the process uncovers the hidden treasures found there. It suggests that by going on this path we become much more compassionate people, more open to others and aware of our mortality thus giving us the desire to live life to the full and make it significant for others.

Jenny McIntosh