Laurie wrote this book in a vulnerable and honest way to help explain how holding onto confining emotions can rob you of precious time in your life. She hopes to prevent others from suffering the way she and her family did. She describes the struggles that her and her parents had with confining emotion. After losing both of her parents and witnessing how they had difficulty in releasing their old emotions and belief patterns, she unearthed ways in which she needed to heal her own life. As she searched for ways to comfort her parents in their health journeys, she learned ways that would eventually also help many others. She empowers her clients by teaching them how to change their perspectives and open their hearts to seeing confining emotions as only a guidance system and not something to punish themselves with striping themselves of their own personal power.

Rising From the Cinders gives the reader a remarkable reason to remember their own childhood.

"I scooped up some dirt, and found a small bird feather, a piece of wood, a small piece of screen, and an old miniature man. I would be able to capture this vacation and family memory in this small container and take a piece of it home with me. I packed it up and when we got home I kept it in my desk in my room."

This passage about Laurie's mystical place, a camp on Woodbury Lake in Vermont, beautifully illustrates the connection that I too, have with this same lake. In my youth, we attended many family reunions there. I learned to fish, putting yucky worms on a hook to catch thin sunfish and pumpkin seed fish, from my memory, on a dock of this lake. I remember hitting my nose on the floating dock while swimming and feeling like I had broken it. My sisters came to my rescue along with cousins. While I was not drowning, my tearful cries gave them a reason to pause and reach for my hand to pull me up and rescue me.

Rising From The Cinders gave me the permission to own my childhood memories by truly acknowledging and feeling them. I did not know that those fish would die, even if we threw them back. Would I die if I broke my nose on that dock? No. The only thing I knew for sure is that I loved this time of peace when parents (mine and my cousins) were not fighting. It was family time and activity surrounded by smiling faces and bountiful food.

This memoir is a gift to humanity and local communities alike. Laurie offers this by being fully present in all of the lessons she shares with us. From birth to death, as well as grieving the end of her marriage, the messages are poignant and meaningful. Enjoy this experience of a chrysalis emerging into a gorgeous butterfly! Put yourself in her shoes and actively gain your own wisdom as you relive your own story."

Kelli L.