A Second Blooming: Becoming the Women We are Meant to Be
Product Code: P542
ISBN: 9780881466126
Product Format: Paperback / softback
A SECOND BLOOMING is a collection of essays by twenty-one authors who are emerging from the chrysalis they built for their younger selves and transforming into the women they are meant to be. They are not all elders, but all have embraced the second half of their lives with a generative spirit.
Anne Lamott writes about finding herself by rejecting her false selves. Mary Karr shares wisdom from her journey to sobriety. Natasha Trethewey writes about the importance of collective memory to the restoration of the Mississippi Gulf Coast after Katrina. Sally Palmer Thomason explores spiral dynamics and sacred geometry in "The Triskele." Susan Marquez writes about her daughter's new life as an actor and motivational speaker after falling from her five-story apartment in New York City. Alexis Paige tells the story of her new beginnings following both incarceration and rape. Kim Michele Richardson's "Abuse: A Survivor's Message to the Vatican" is a plea written by one who suffered ten years of abuse in a Catholic orphanage. Emma French Connolly retired from her position as a deacon on the staff of an Episcopal church in Memphis in her sixties to open Uptown Needle and CraftWorks in New Orleans. Other contributors include Jennifer Bradner, Julie Cantrell, Beth Ann Fennelly, Nina Gaby, Jessica Handler, Suzanne Henley, Jennifer Horne, River Jordan, Cassandra King, Ellen Morris Prewitt, Wendy Reed, Kathy Rhodes, and NancyKay Sullivan Wessman.
These women of all ages have made it over a wall to find their true selves.
As Agatha Christie says of the second blooming, ".a whole new life has opened before you.. It is as if a fresh sap of ideas and thoughts was rising in you."
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Take a look at the fabulous authors that are contributing to this book!
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Foreword by Anne Lamott
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Introduction (Susan Cushman,
Editor)
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I. Blooming through Surrender
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Beyond this Point there Be Dragons (Suzanne Henley)
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The Sweet Hereafter (Mary Karr)
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II. Blooming after Loss
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Pushing Up the Sun (Kathy Rhodes)
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Chapter 21 (Jessica Handler,
from Invisible Sisters)
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My Brother’s Keeper (Julie Cantrell)
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The Widow Wessman (NancyKay Sullivan Wessman)
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Root (River Jordan)
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III. Blooming in Place
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A Couple Bad Nights in Brindisi (Nina Gaby)
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When Dusk Fell an Hour Earlier (Beth Ann Fennelly)
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Syringa Vulgaris (Alexis Paige)
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Abuse: A Survivor’s Message for the Vatican
(Kim Michele Richardson)
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IV. Blooming Again…and Again
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Woman on a Half Shell (Wendy Reed)
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The Walker (Ellen Morris Prewitt)
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A Second Chance at Empty-Nesting (Susan Marquez)
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The Triskele (Sally Palmer Thomason)
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Dharma Slut (Jennifer Bradner)
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V. Blooming in Careers and Communities
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Something Has to Die (Cassandra King)
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My Eudaimonia
(Emma French Connolly)
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The Second Half (Jennifer Horne)
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Liturgy (Natasha Trethewey, from Beyond Katrina)
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Reading the essays in A Second Blooming I was immediately reminded of Winston Churchill’s memorable appeal to the British people in 1941 in the darkest days of the German Blitzkrieg: “Never, never, never give up.” Susan Cushman’s anthology brings that message home to all read- ers, women and men, in a collection of powerful, lyrical, unforgettable prose.
—Lee Gutkind, editor of Creative Nonfiction
You will find yourself somewhere in Susan Cushman’s A Second Bloom- ing. I discovered pieces
of me within these testimonies. The women in this book don’t preach. There are no sermons. Turning their adversities
into advantages, each one has lived to testify to the severe depths at which they traveled to get where they are. It’s not an overstatement to say I loved this book. I didn’t find instruction or admonishment but I did find a greater sense of comfort, familiarity,
and empowerment.
And God. He’s present in every chapter. These inspirational stories breathe frost and fire, offering hope and second chances. Beautifully written
and heartrending,
A Second Blooming is a must read!
—Pamela King Cable, best-selling author of
The Sanctum, Southern Fried Women, and Televenge
A Second Blooming reads like an urgent prayer. Inside, courageous wom- en writers relate painfully honest stories sure to inspire not only survival but thrive-al. Filled with heartbreaking transitions from past selves to new, it’s a must read for any woman tattered
by life and circumstances, eager to rise from the ashes again.
—Nicole Seitz, author of The Cage-Maker, Trouble the Water, and Saving Cicadas