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The Way of Love
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Martha Johnson Bourlakas
Feb/2016, 160 Pages, PAPERBACK, 5 x 7
ISBN-13: 9780819232137
Tackles head-on the difficulties and joys of family life, especially with a "special needs" child
With autism diagnoses rising, more and more parents find the challenges of caring for an autistic child added to the everyday strains and stresses—and joys of family life. In a deeply personal, honest, humorous set of essays, Martha Johnson Bourlakas grapples with life—life as a person of faith, life as a wife and mother, life as a clergy spouse (her husband is bishop of Southwestern Virginia), life as the parent of a developmentally disabled young adult, life as one unable to maintain pretense. Reading these essays is like sitting down over coffee with a good friend to commiserate and laugh with someone who understands.
Martha Johnson Bourlakas has a master's degree in education from Vanderbilt and an MFA in creative nonfiction from Spalding University, Louisville, Kentucky. She has been leading Our One Word groups and retreats for two years and has witnessed the power of this experience for women. She resides in Southwestern Virginia with her bishop husband, three daughters, two dogs, and one cat.
"With Love Feast, Martha Bourlakas hosts a sumptuous banquet for the soul. Taste and savor each morsel, each sacred story she shares. But don't stop there. Continue the feast by giving this book to others, using it as catalyst for the sharing of your own sacred stories with one another."
— Scott Stoner, Director, Living Compass
"Love Feast is an intricate tapestry of words, stories, colors, and memories that will linger in your heart and soul long after you put the book down. Martha, a storyteller in the truest sense of the word, greets us at the door of her perfectly imperfect life, and invites us in, reminding us never to lose sight of love."
— Roger Hutchison, artist and author, Under the Fig Tree