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Those who follow me on Facebook know I’ve been working on a unique challenge for myself: no TV for a month. #30DaysNoTV
It’s not easy. Over the last year, I’ve developed an addition to Bones and NCIS (the one with Mark Harmon in it…yummy) reruns.
But I’m not giving up, mainly because it’s given me more time to do all of the reading I’ve been craving. So far, I think I’ve read eight books!
June 15th marked Day 21 of my 30 Days of No TV Challenge–I have a story about the book I just finished. It’s a little long…but worth it so bear with me.
Around 100 years ago (OK, it was around 17 years ago) I met this amazing woman named Lisa Roderick.
Lisa and I happened to frequent the same infertility and pregnancy loss online discussion/support site and one day she pipes up and asks if anyone would like to be her online weight loss buddy. I said sure! It didn’t take long for a very special long-distance friendship to blossom online and off. I say “long distance” because Lisa lives in Australia and me in MN. But that didn’t stop us and together we navigated all sorts of highs and lows in life.
One of the MANY things I loved back then about Lisa (other than her lovingly, matter-of-fact-nothing-ruffles-my-feathers mentality) was the fact her greatest aspiration in life was to be a published author. I still love that about her to this day!
And she became one…a very successful one too!
In 2017 she sent me this amazing book called The Shape of Us written under her pen name, Lisa Ireland. I just finished it and I am hugging this book like the treasure it is.
This book is about 4 women from different parts of Australia who come together to form an online weight loss buddy system (sound familiar?). All 4 women are very different and come from very different backgrounds, but all have the same issue with weight and self-loathing.
As the story progresses, these 4 women become more like sisters on and offline and together they help each other navigate some pretty significant life battles (sound familiar?). There’s laughter and tears, bickering and betrayals and there’s a surprise twist in this story that completely took my breath away.
All of it makes me realize what a masterpiece this book truly is. One of the ma many powerful lessons in The Shape of Us is that, even though true friends may not always agree, they will be by each other’s sides no matter what, even if it means saying goodbye.
The ending of this book had my eyes leaking like a waterfall…then I saw the final line in the acknowledgments and then I COMPLETELY Lost.It. (In a good way)
I think a personal lesson to me is that true friends remain that way despite thousands of miles between then and hectic lives filled with careers and kids.
I think her message on the last page of that book is also a great testimony as to how the kindness you share with each other has no expiration date and how much words (that you may have forgotten you even said) matter.
Lisa’s book doesn’t have US distribution, but you can download it on Amazon Kindle and I highly recommend that you do just that (cuz I’m not sharing my copy) 🙂
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