This book is a literary beacon of hope

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“my heart woke me crying last 

night 

how can i help i begged

my heart said 

write the book” —Rupi Kaur, Prologue from Milk and Honey

In Awake: A Memoir by Jen Hatmaker the author notes, “Before I started writing, my agent Margaret told me: ‘Save nothing for the swim home.’ I wrote my story all the way out to the middle of the ocean. Scariest thing I’ve ever done.” In Part 1, The End she writes, “At 2:30 a.m. on July 11, 2020, out of a dead sleep, I hear five whispered words not meant for me: ‘I just can’t quit you.’…It is the end of my life as I know it. The next four hours are chaos.”

Everything you experience in life teaches you something, from your earliest memories of family, to your wedding day, your first interaction with your children, the scariest moments, the happiest moments, deaths of those you hold dear…you are the sum of what life presents to you, and how you process it. This is what makes Jen’s memoir so powerful. It is written in such a way it takes the reader on her own experiences as though live, unfiltered, what it’s like to live in the moment, and walk in her shoes. It is about the highs and lows in life, and how she gets through it, with a little help from her friends, family, and letting it all wash over and through her. 

This book is a literary beacon of hope beckoning readers to understand you can survive the worst life throws at you, the unthinkable, and you will like the stronger you, encountered along the way. 

In Chapter 97 of Awake Hatmaker writes: “I lay there quietly, trusting the goodness of my own safe body, believing her wisdom and waiting for her message: ‘It’s two thirty.’ ‘Yes.’ ‘This was the time.’ ‘Yes.’ ‘You heard those awful words.’ ‘Yes.’” Her body continues the conversation with her: “‘I just can’t quit you.’ I smile. My body is both cheeky and earnest. The one who will never quit me is me. The one who will never lie to me is me. The one who will always love me is me. The one who will always protect me is me. The one who will always choose me is me. I will never again outsource my life.” 

What lies within the book covers is very much worth the ride. If you have experienced a betrayal from the last one you expected it from (who hasn’t?), even if it was 20 years ago, it may take you back to that moment, to the rawness of how you felt, the plane tickets for two hidden in his sock drawer, or whatever was your personal experience. Trust your body. It’s there for you, it always has been, and you, like the author, can survive and thrive if you listen to your body, and those in your life who love you most, including yourself. Stories like this of those who get through their darkest moments and emerge, wiser and happier, can help enormously because they demonstrate you are not alone in your feelings. I love happy endings, and everyone has them, waiting to be experienced.

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