Divine Design

Divine Design presents original drawings and thoughts composed while the author accompanied her mother through her final passage from life to death. "Feeling helpless in the face of my mother's suffering and my own grief, I created pictures to 'draw forth' my emotions and perceptions in order to cope and give myself hope. It's a stretch to call them 'artistic pictures'-they're just doodles and stick figures made with whatever colored pens and paper I had on hand," Marian said. "My heart guided my drawings, and although they seem 'original' to me, all are gleaned from conversations with loved ones and my mother. Catholicism, all forms of Christianity, and Judaism touched her deeply, and she found solace in the writings of the psychotherapist Carl Jung. My mother encouraged my spiritual studies, including the Asian wisdom traditions of Buddhism, Taoism, Tai Chi Chuan, and Kosho Shorei-ryu Kempo Karate. Divine Design explores the wealth of my mother's and others' teachings in order to experience everything as valuable-including situations that are overwhelming and beyond comprehension. Curveballs, misfortunes, losses, accidents, depressions-all these are facets of the gift of life. I offer this book with the hope that it may help others."