Bridge Builders: Ordinary Women Doing Extraordinary Things

Elaine Voci

Description

As you read the stories in Bridge Builders: Ordinary Women Doing Extraordinary Things, you will enjoy the company of 12 humorous, uplifting and energizing women. You will find wonderful portrayals of the heart, mind and soul of faith and come to appreciate these aspects of yourself. Elaine Voci gives us the 12 stories of women who have had life-changing experiences plus her own story during the year that it took to complete the book. Whether facing terminal illnesses, the loss of a hard-won career or the pursuit of a dream that seems unreachable, these women found a source of faith and courage within themselves that they did not always trust or believe they had. Each called upon inner resources, friendships with other women, scriptural passages and other inspiring words to not only endure, but to conquer fear and grow stronger. They have made it through the dark night of the soul, not just intact, but stronger and wiser for the experience.

Sujets

• Santé et bien-être
• Bien-être émotionnel
• Bien-être
• Bien-être
• Bien-être
• Bien-être
• Happiness
• Self-help
• Personal Growth

Informations

• Publié par: eBookIt.com
• Date de parution: 25 mars 2015
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781456624316
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

Bridge Builders
Ordinary Women
Doing Extraordinary Things

By Elaine Voci, Ph.D.

© 2015 Elaine Voci. All Rights Reserved.
All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or any part thereof in any form, except for inclusion of brief quotations in a review, without the written permission of Elaine Voci. Elaine can be contacted at [e-mail] .
First published by AuthorHouse 12/06/05
Published in eBook format by eBookIt.com
http://www.eBookIt.com
ISBN-13: 978-1-4566-2431-6


Photo courtesy of Angela R. Talley photography
About the Book
As you read the stories in Bridge Builders: Ordinary Women doing Extraordinary Things, you will enjoy the company of 12 humorous, uplifting and energizing women. You will find wonderful portrayals of the heart, mind and soul of faith and come to appreciate these aspects of yourself. Elaine Voci gives us the 12 stories of women who have had life-changing experiences plus her own story during the year that it took to complete the book. Whether facing terminal illnesses, the loss of a hard-won career or the pursuit of a dream that seems unreachable, these women found a source of faith and courage within themselves that they did not always trust or believe they had. Each called upon inner resources, friendships with other women, scriptural passages and other inspiring words to not only endure, but to conquer fear and grow stronger. They have made it through the dark night of the soul, not just intact, but stronger and wiser for the experience.


To my grandchildren,
Connor, Troy, Charlie, Kate and Alex
"There is only one you. God wanted you to be you.
Don't you dare change
just because you're outnumbered."
- e.e. cummings

But soon we shall die and all memory of those five will have left the earth, and we ourselves shall be loved for awhile and forgotten. But the love will have been enough; all those impulses of love return to the love that made them. Even memory is not necessary for love. There is a land of the living and a land of the dead and the bridge is love, the only survival, the only meaning.
Bridge of San Luis Rey, Thornton Wilder

Special Author's Note

The women's stories in this book are from transcriptions of my interviews with them and are told in their own words, with a minimum of editing. I wanted you to feel as if they were telling you their stories, sitting on a couch with you, sharing, laughing, and getting teary-eyed together, while nodding in understanding.
Since 2005, when the first edition was published as a paperback, three of the women have died. I want to mark their passage from this life by taking a moment now to remember them:
The first to leave us was Nancy Miller, featured in the chapter titled "Fifty Happy Faces." During the time I met and interviewed Nancy she was being treated for cancer, and on the evening of the book launch party held a year later, she looked brave, gaunt, and so happy to be there to celebrate with all of us. She died later that year and left many beautiful memories among her women friends, family and neighbors.
The next was Carrie Kemp, featured in the chapter titled, "The Glue." Carrie had retired from nursing, the career she had dreamed of from the age of nine, and continued to be active in her faith community and her family. Her life of accomplishment was matched by her quiet dignity and pride in family and the nursing profession.
Finally, Mary Bisbecos, featured in the chapter titled, "The Patience of the Rose" died two years ago in a local hospice surrounded by loving friends and family. Mary was one of my oldest and dearest friends and allies in this life, and I was blessed to be one of several who took care of her during the last two years of her life. She was an exceptionally sweet teacher, a caring professional, and a beloved "mom" to many neighbors, friends and co-workers. Legally blind from birth, Mary was sighted just the same. She "saw" people clearly with her heart and drew great strength from her faith and her family of origin.
These three women are deeply missed and leave behind those who will always remember them as the bright spirits they were. As the expression goes, "Death ends a life, but not a relationship." I treasure Nancy, Carrie and Mary and bless them in this revised e-book edition so that many new readers can meet them and find inspiration, hope and enduring lessons on the power of love in their life stories.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
To God, the Original Creator, who spoke this message into my heart and whose loving guidance saw me through sleepless nights and who provided me with inspiration, energy and perseverance to complete this work the first time, and again in this revised edition. In particular, I received encouragement through Jim Cota, President of Rare Bird, in Indianapolis. He strongly suggested that I introduce this book to a whole new generation of readers by converting it to an e-book, and I am deeply grateful to him.
To each of the twelve women who so generously and vulnerably shared her story with me for this book, I am honored and humbled. In ten years, my admiration of you has only grown deeper and I find myself often reflecting on your stories, your words and your beautiful spirits.
To my dear children, Todd and Jen Belanger, and Greg and Debbie Belanger, among the most loving and caring people I know, who always encourage me to do my best and whose humor has saved the day more than once. To my precious grandchildren, Connor, Troy, Charlie, Kate and Alex, who have given me unwavering love and allowed me to be a child again, over and over, by creating art, music, painting and play together.
To all the women who may read this book, I hope it serves you as a well of inspiration that you can drink from deeply as you listen to your inner voice, draw courage into your heart and bring forth your unique gifts. Bless you!
Introduction

The twelve women you are about to meet are not shy, faltering women. They have had life-defining experiences, some of them defy convention and each of them continues to reach for her dreams – for the good of others. But they are not bigger than life, either. That is what I find so compelling about their stories: they are as bold as any fictional heroine ever created and yet as ordinary as people like us. They are the classic everywoman.
They are ordinary in the sense that they strive to be good mothers, daughters, sisters, friends and wives while managing family and career responsibilities. They struggle with challenges any of us might encounter: illness, the loss of a parent, career changes, and the social pressures surrounding the role of women in the larger society. They are extraordinary because they have made courageous choices to face their difficulties head-on with dignity, honesty, and quiet determination. They are bridge builders in the way they naturally link people, ideas and resources with goals designed to make a difference in the world.
The common element that unites them is a deeply spiritual perspective that transcends their differences in age, occupation, ethnicity or religion. From this spiritual viewpoint a woman's major life task is much larger than making money, having a career, finding a spouse, raising children, dressing fashionably, looking pretty, or defying aging. It is a realization of the sacred in the commonplace. It is a deep sense of thankfulness for the web of interconnections between nature, people and the physical world. It is a recognition that true intimacy, based on mutual respect and love, is the foundation of a life well-lived.
In the past few years, I have been developing a model, called the "Heroine's Mythic Journey," to depict a woman's life cycle as a process with distinct, yet interrelated, stages. I visualize it as a circle with each of the stages plotted around it. I have presented the model to numerous women's groups and conferences in the U.S. and Canada and women tell me repeatedly that they can relate to the stages. I trust their candid feedback as authentic. This book is a collection of interviews with twelve women who are serving their families, neighborhoods, organizations and communities with passion, commitment and courage. They embody the Heroine's Mythic Journey.
Being a heroine, by definition, involves finding and using courage to surmount the fears and obstacles that come with human endeavor. When we take such action, we are rewarded with increased self-confidence, resiliency and personal growth. Let me share a short story to illustrate this. My first grandson, Connor, was born with a rare form of childhood cancer called retinal blastoma, in which the retina of the eye is attacked by fast-spreading tumors that can result in blindness. He was diagnosed at four months of age and it quickly became necessary to surgically remove his left eye in order to save his life. He has worn a prosthetic eye ever since, periodically having it replaced as he grows. (Our eyes grow until we are seven years of age.)
Each time I babysat for Connor, I lived in dread that his prosthesis would come out and I would have to put it back in place. I was not squeamish, because the eye socket looks perfectly fine, but I was afraid I would hurt him, or be unable to do it and cause him to lose confidence in me.
Like most fears, the more I worried about it, the bigger it grew in my mind. Finally, last spring when I was babysitting Connor, who is now five years old, it happened. He rubbed his eyes and his prosthesis slipped out. I was panicked.
Connor and I talked about what to do, and we tried several times to replace it, but to no avail. It was late so I put him to bed, after he had extracted an agreement to sleep in my bed for "just one night." I spoke to my son and his wife by phone and they walked me through the instructions which sounded simple enough. I spent the night praying in this manner: "God, please let it be Your hands guiding mine tomorrow."
Mornin