A House in the Sky

"A House In The Sky" by Amanda Lindhout & Sara Corbett

I saw an interview with the author, Amanda, and was intrigued by her story and had to read her book.  Amanda was in Somalia when she was kidnapped and held captive for over a year.  The book is about her captivity and the efforts to rescue her.  This is an amazing story of survival and determination.  Amanda endured such unimaginable cruelty and yet survived and made it her mission to help the women of Somolia.  It is an incredible story of the human spirit.  "Something happens when you are alone most of the time, when there are no distractions.  You mind grows more powerful-muscular, even.  It takes over and starts to carry you."  Amanda used her mind to take her out of her captivity, it helped her to survive for over a year.  She used the power of imagination to dream of other places, outside the walls and darkness that surrounded her.  "It's only your body that's suffering, and you are not your body.  The rest of you is fine."  When she was being tortured she would say this to herself, helping her to endure.  "By concentrating on what I was grateful for, I managed to stave off despair.  Each time my captors threw me into that hole, I found another way to climb out.  It wasn't easy-not ever, not once-but this way of thinking became my ladder, my doorway." Amanda showed such strength in the midst of her horrible reality.  She chose to be grateful for any and every little thing.  This gratefulness enabled her to keep from falling into complete despair.  Gratefulness is a powerful tool.  "I choose to forgive the people who took my freedom from me and abused me, despite the fact that what they were doing was absolutely wrong.  Forgiving is not an easy thing to do.  Some days it's no more than a distant spot on the horizon.  I look toward it.  I point my feet in its direction.  Some days I get there and other days I don't.  More than anything else though, it's what has helped me move forward with my life."  Often we can't imagine forgiving someone who has deeply wronged us and yet in not doing so we hold oursleves captive with that hurt.  Forgiveness frees us.  Amanda faced some of the harshest cruelty and yet she has chosen to forgive and said that this alone is the greatest thing that has helped her move past what was done to her.  If there is unforgiveness you can not move forward, the past is still shackled to you.  She chose forgiveness and through that has been able to go back to Somolia and help the people there.  

The Wind is Not a River

"The Wind is Not a River" by Brian Payton

This book was intriguing.  It is a novel but it does tell about an actual little known battle of WWII.  John is a journalist who has lost his brother in the war and is determined to write about what is actually happening.  John leaves his wife behind and go to Alaska's Aleutian Islands and his plane is shot down.  He survives the crash only to have to survive being undettected by the enemy and surviving the elements.  His wife is determined to find out what has happened to her husband after not hearing from him for three months.  Will love be able to bring them back together?  Will she be strong enough to find her answers, no matter what they are?  This is a story of sacrifice, love and courage.  "The sacrifices made on our behalf must be known before they can be remembered, he said."  We can not be thankful to those who have sacrificed for us if we do not know what was sacrificed.  We all have a story to tell and as I get older I am wishing more and more that I had heard the stories of those who went before me.  "We're walking through life in the present, changing along the way.  The past is something somebody else did long ago.  What happens tomorrow is someone else's problem.  All that's real is the here and now."  Hopefully we are changing, adapting and makes adjustments along this journey we call life.  The past is done, and we are different for it.  We can't control tomorrow and it's not our job to.  What we have is today, that's all we are guaranteed and we need to do the best we can. "How many millions of lives have been diverted by this war?  Unlike the tally of ships, dollars, or casualties, there is no math for personal losses, losses quiet and unseen.  No restitution for what could have been."  Wars losses are great.  Many lives are changed, never to be on the path they once were.  "There are enough hard facts to confront each day without letting our imaginations get the better of us-without letting worry drain our real lives away."   I would recommend this book.  It has a touch of history, a lot of courage and love and faith in humanity restored.