Surviving the worst
Published by: Hay House
ISBN: 9789380480848
Pages: 306 • Price: `350
What do you do when your marriage of 37 years ends in a brutal divorce, one of the reasons being adultery? When you lose your daughter bit by bit to cancer? When your house is in mortgage and you do not have enough money to find a roof? Do you see God’s purpose in the tragedies you’re going through? Many would think that’s impossible. But the author Iyanla Vanzant saw it and through this book she inspires millions who might go through dark days in their life.
She discovered how her problems were because of faulty patterns being repeated and family pathology that is passed down through the generations. And that all turmoil is God’s master plan to put us where our life work is.
She begins her story as a three-year-old girl who lost her mother and was put in the care of her “mean as a cat” paternal grandmother. That was when she first picked up the messages that there was something wrong about her and that she did things that caused everyone to be mad at her. She learnt that men can get away with anything and women need to make excuses for all the wrong done.
She always attracted men who refused to honour and respect her for who she was, men who were emotionally unavailable, and who did not take responsibility for anything. This trait, she says, ran in all the women in her family. She, her mother and finally her beautiful daughter Gemmia dealt with the same kind of men.
One day while riding in a taxi, she could not even bring herself to ask the driver to turn down the air conditioner, even though she was shivering. She endured it because, deep down, a voice told her that she was worthless, undeserving and was never supposed to ask anything. That was the day she realised there was something terribly wrong in her life that needed to be sorted out. Not only did she get herself out of this whirlpool of self-berating feelings but she prevented this family pathology to be passed on to her granddaughter Niamoja by teaching her to say no, and also that it was OK not to give an explanation for saying it.
Peace from Broken Pieces is about the lessons our soul is designed to learn. It is not a book only about Iyanla Vanzant, but a universal story of hurts and wounds, of denials and betrayal, lies and truth… but above all the light of God that makes us rise above it and make us shine.