In June I read two books by Dr. Edith Eva Eger and I believe that in some way they apply to each person although the details may be extremely different.
The first is The Choice–Embrace the Possible. It is a memoir of parts of Dr. Eger’s life. She survived the Holocaust and time in the camps. Her father, mother, Eva and her sister were taken and she and her sister survived.
But this is primarily a survival story with ways to apply it to your own life. She made a new life for herself in this country, worked to get a Ph.D and set up a practice and to help other people heal from all kinds of trauma.
At one point she writes: When we grieve, it’s not just over what happened–we grieve for what didn’t happen.
Her other book is titled The Gift–12 Lessons to Save Your Life. This is a shorter book and focused on the lessons she and all of us can learn. At the end of each chapter in this book there is a page of bullet points for that chapter’s particular focus. I am still reading them over one at a time just to check out where I am and how I’m doing.
The Choice is hard and inspiring reading. And The Gift is an extremely helpful I read. I recommend reading both.
