Book review: Healing with Words
There are very few books that I read in one sitting. However, Diana M. Raab’s Healing with Words happens to be one of them. And not because it was a light read either. A short story, yes, but by no stretch of the imagination light reading.
You see, Healing with Words is all about Diana’s journey through breast cancer, followed up with a diagnosis of multiple myeloma. I couldn’t put the book down, because I needed to know how on earth she got through this and came out strong enough to share her journey with all of us!
Diana got through it one day at a time.
But this book is not so easily written off with that over used cliché. Many of Diana’s days were filled with grief, fear, depression, and an ocean of tears. In other words, Diana tells it like it is.
A large part of Diana’s healing came from writing poetry and chronicling her emotions in her journal. Healing with Words is actually a workbook intended for women diagnosed with cancer. By adding questions and space to write at the end of each chapter, Diana created a tool for women with cancer to journal their own experiences and emotions.
While careful to state that medical choices documented in the book are uniquely her own, Diana provides advice on cutting through the information overload to be found on cancer and treatments. As well, she provides guidance on the questions to ask and whom best to ask them of.
We are also treated to Diana’s beautiful, yet intense, poetry. Again, there are no holds barred, such as this short but to the point poem entitled Bifurcation:
Having a breast sliced off
leaves a woman with two lives –
the one before the lost
and the one after.
There is a time for platitudes, but there is also a time for “hey, this is the reality of what it is like”. Healing with Words is that reality. But, it is also validation that the roller coaster of emotions is normal, and they need to be experienced in order to heal emotionally and physically.
I would love to hear your thoughts!
Do you write to help heal? What other methods do you use to work through pain, be it physical or emotional?
More information!
Make sure you return on August 3, 2010, to win a copy of Healing with Words.
Diana can be found at Diana M. Raab
This book review was sponsored by WOW! Women on Writing
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I find myself doing mindless chores–sitting on the floor sorting laundry, washing dishes, even straightening my son’s toys. Just enough concentration that I don’t think about myself.
@Jodi – I’m the opposite. When I am in any kind of pain I totally hunker down. Pajamas, blanket, tea, the whole bit. Then I grab my journal and write until I can’t write no more
When I had ovarian cancer I thought my creativity had been cut out with all the other stuff…it took a long time to recover and I could not have done that recovery without walking and my journal….it was also the moment in my life that all the friends I had left after my child got so obnoxious – left me too. My mother hung in there, though not always so supportive….lots of middle of the night writing
A workbook sounds like a great idea….
I will tweet this but I can not seem to get your twit this and Davina’s to work…I have to copy and paste.
Thanks for the great review. I am glad you enjoyed the book.
To health and best wishes,
Diana
http://www.dianaraab.com