The book I read for June is called "Hiking Through: One Man's Journey to Peace and Freedom on the Appalachian Trail" by Paul Stutzman. When Paul Stutzman's wife is diagnosed with breast cancer they are both changed and fight the disease hard. He tells the story most candidly and you can tell this is the kind of man he is. For the first while after he loses her to cancer he too is lost and is looking for answers. Something in Paul is drawn and calmed by nature, particularly the Appalachian trail. He decides to embark upon a 2, 176 mile journey on the trail, and documents his trip. His story really spoke to me on many levels: Life is made of transitions and changes and it's not easy when things are going all backwards to know what the next step is. They say we use 10 percent of our brain and I think that the other 90 percent is where God speaks to us in ways only we will understand subjectively. Paul Stutzman was called out to the land and the tree-song to help heal him. This book is a wonderful reminder of the strength of nature in reaffirming our relationship back to our ourselves and to God. Paul does find his way and his wife's spirit can be found in his words and in the conversations he has along the way. It is a book that is wise and pays the highest respect to his wife. I think from teenagers to seniors this book is a kind offering of hope and of strength and healing, we call all walk away with something from this most honest journal by Paul Stutzman.
Book has been provided courtesy of Baker Publishing Group and Graf-Martin Communications, Inc.
Available at your favourite bookseller from Revell, a division of Baker Publishing Group.By Candace Duiker
http://www.grafmartin.com/
http://www.amazon.ca/
http://www.chapters.indigo.ca/
