BEGIN AGAIN, AND AGAIN, AND AGAIN

Moving on.

Writer, illustrator, and end-of-life doula Olanow follows her previous books on self-care, self-empathy, and recovery from grief with an intimate response to a vexing question: “Is this all there is?” Sharing meditations, aphorisms, poems, quotations (by Sylvia Plath and Alan Watts), drawings, and watercolor paintings of moody landscapes and flowers, she writes encouragingly about the possibility of transformation. Like the seed of a plant, seeds of transformation require patience and darkness. They also require optimism: “The flower you see today,” she writes, “started as a tiny seed who believed in tomorrow.” Drawing on her own experience of divorce, single-parenthood, and loss, she advises that “what feels like failure often contains the possibility of something else entirely.” A butterfly flapping in frustration at a window that blocked its route into her garden found that once it stopped struggling, it could sense a current of air on which it sailed to freedom. People, too, need to stop struggling in order to find new possibilities. She admits to being mired, at times, “between yesterday’s regrets and tomorrow’s anxieties,” but advises not to burden oneself with aspirations to perfection: “a heavy word/and an even heavier burden.” Like Mary Oliver, whose sentiments she often echoes, Olanow knows that paying close attention to nature’s beauty takes practice, and is amply rewarded. As to the question, “is this all there is?” Olanow responds, “Perhaps the question is not what more, but what deeper awaits you.” Resilience and openness serve us well: “We are unfinished symphonies. Maybe our most beautiful notes are yet to be played.” Counseling self-confidence and hope, Olanow is a compassionate guide along the trajectory of self-renewal.

A gentle, affirming companion to inevitable change.