By: Irene Watson and Victor R. Volkman
Preface:
What is Transformation? Transformation can take many forms: a new beginning, stepping outside of your culture, rediscovering the bonds of family, caring in the hour of need, giving up destructive attitudes, honoring the past.
What does it take to start your transformation? I think a key ingredient is the decision itself: confront the unknown, take a chance, create who you yourself to be.
Summary:
This book has amazing encouraging stories about confronting the past, making a new start and having a relationship with God.
The first story in this book was one that I could relate to on a couple of levels. It was about dealing with divorce and having a renewed relationship with God. In this story, similar to me, the woman knew when her marriage was falling apart. Instead of dealing with the problem head on, I also threw myself into work, my daughter and anything that I could to present a certain outward appearance regardless of what it was doing to me on the inside and to my household. I too thought that I was smart enough to “fix” the problem on my own.
When reality finally hit and divorce occurred she turned to yoga, prayer and meditation. I turned to acupuncture and prayer. We each incorporated a non-conventional path with prayer that led to the same result of strength and inner peace to make it through a difficult period in life.
I love this book because I feel that there is at least one story that someone can relate to. Another powerful story was the transformation of a police officer that was on the run for 22 years and how in the end he did the right thing after years in the wilderness and turned himself in. He was truly blessed at the end of this moving story, God found it fit to place a judge on his case to have mercy on him.
If I could I would write about each and every story in this book because they all deserve to be talked about and discussed. They are truly drama filled, moving, and inspirational. What I love the most are they are stories about real people that turned their lives around. Each person found inner peace, happiness and contentment in their own way at their own time in life.
The cover of this book speaks a thousand words to me. Butterflies are my theme for the year because they do represent a beautiful transformation in life. My redesigned blog page is covered in butterflies because I feel that this year I have truly transformed.
This book for me was a blessing in disguise and I am glad that I had the chance to read and review it.
Favorite Quote from the book: “I have learned that in prayer we speak to God, however; in meditation God speaks to us.”
Interview with Author:
1. What inspired you to write this book?
Irene Watson and I wanted to put together a book of true stories from people's own lives that reflected situations that required a radical transformation. The power of storytelling is such that what one person achieves creates something that is possible for everyone else who learns about it. Since Irene had already begun an annual book contest, we posed this as a short-story writing contest with a nominal entry fee and the chance to appear in an anthology as the reward. We received entries from people around the world, from all walks of life and all ages. The themes were many and varied, from those desperate to make a brand new start, to those fighting for their self-esteem, and those questioning their very relationship with God.
2. How did you come up with the title?
The title “The Story that Must Be Told: True Tales of Transformation” was supposed to reflect exactly what was on offer. Specifically, people with stories so personal and life-changing that they literally were crying out to be heard, stories that you can’t put down once you start, that drive you to read it without stopping. The subtitle “True Tales of Transformation” reflected our desire to find out what people identified as turning points in their life, where “nothing was the same” afterwards, with amazing results... we heard from people with psychic experiences to those on the run from the law and everything in between.
3. Is there a message in your book that you want readers to grasp?
The message is simple, if you want to change your life, it’s all within your power. However, you have to make the first move. Be brave, be bold, do something different, take a risk... Don’t settle for a relationship just because it’s better than “no relationship at all”. Whether it’s your spouse, your best friend, or God in heaven, you deserve relationships that matter and make a difference in your life. It sound trite, but those who succeed the most are also those who fail the most often, they’re just not giving up!
4. Are experiences based on someone you know, or events in your own life?
The one stipulation for submitting stories to the contest is they must be personal stories, true events from the writer’s own life. We didn’t want secondhand accounts, but the raw and visceral emotions that can only come from a first-person story. The kind of story where all the rest of the world disappears when you read it, being replaced by the world of the story itself.
5. Who designed the covers?
I designed the cover myself, using the motif that the butterfly is the creature that represents the highest form of transformation. Literally, the caterpillar must transform into a butterfly or die trying. And of course, what Richard Bach wrote 50 years ago is still true today: “What the caterpillar sees as the end of life, the Master sees as the beginning”
Overall Rating for The Story that Must be Told:
5 Stars
5 Stars
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