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THE HUNGRY SOUL
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BREATHE DEEPLY!
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Hazelden Books
is entertaining and healing for children ages ten and older, a "must read" for adult children from dysfunctional or alcoholic homes, adults in recovery from addictions, adults on a spiritual path and a valuable teaching tool for parents, teachers, psychotherapists, nurses, school counselors, social workers, substance abuse counselors, Jungian and transpersonal psychologists, and other healing arts professionals.
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Audenreed Press is a publishing cooperative with a distinctive voice. Please support these independent artists, teachers, and healers who do not have a voice in the mainstream print media. If you order Breathe Deeply! from the publisher ask for a catalog of all our titles. Thank you for your support!
Breathe Deeply! Healing Stories for the Soul
by Patricia A. Burke
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Reviewed by author, James Joseph
Wisdom need not be complex. As Patricia Burke demonstrates in Breathe Deeply! Healing Stories for the Soul, simplicity is the key to true wisdom...and stories the most direct path to the soul. Since ancient times, storytellers have woven history, fable and metaphor into the very fabric of their cultures, and Burke has managed to create 14 illuminating parables that provide subtle, yet meaningful messages for readers of all ages. Adults will learn to find the child within; children will delight in the imagery that provides a clear path to maturity. Each of these stories directs readers and listeners inward, where compassion, understanding and healing truly begin.
We all have things we hang onto, though they're most obvious when we see them in children. The simple suggestion of replacement is something that people of all ages can learn. Throughout these fourteen stories, Burke delves into the anger, self-worthlessness, pain, trauma and many other emotions that cause so much dysfunction in all of us, yet she does so with the delicate hand of a surgeon, and the caring touch of compassion. The diverse imagery and settings will delight children and adults alike. Breathe Deeply! Healing Stories for the Soul will touch many for years to come.
James Joseph
author of Shadow of the Serpent: A Coyote Moon Story
Breathe Deeply! is a wonderful assemblage of fairy tales that put new meaning into the word metaphor. Further, Breathe Deeply! celebrates the tradition of storytelling, the ancient form of creative expression and teaching. Author, poet, educator and psychotherapist Patricia Burke has created a loving collection of therapeutic tales that children and adults alike can truly benefit from.
Each of the 14 stories convey a special message that can be, and in this reviewer's opinion, should be a part of your child's learning and heritage. Indeed, the overall effect of Breathe Deeply! is, for children, an understanding of who they are and what really matters in their lives. For adults, Breathe Deeply! will help us remember what we once knew but perhaps forgot.
While each story seems to be a magical fairy tale (and they are), every story contains a subtle message of enlightenment that deals with such diverse and meaningful subjects as addiction, abuse, helplessness, hopelessness and identity, to name a few. Author Burke tells them lovingly and with the grace of someone who truly cares...and who still believes, rightfully so, in a better place.
Breathe Deeply! is uplifting and, at the same time, directing the reader (child or adult) on an inward journey. If a good book gets you to think, then Patricia A. Burke has given us a great book! Breathe Deeply! makes you think while, at the same time, delights the soul with imaginative characters and joyous stories. And the splendid illustrations by Viki Kennedy throughout this milestone serve to translate the words into graphic pictures. If you have a child (or an inner child) over ten years of age, or know someone who does...Breathe Deeply! is a sure winner!
Richard Fuller, Senior Editor
Metaphysical Reviews
"Patricia Burke's stories convey deep psychological/spiritual truths poetically and lovingly. She takes the reader into the realm of myth and fairy tale easily, naturally. They illustrate the key teachings of the Pathwork very imaginatively."
--Judith Saly, editor of Creating Union and The Pathwork of Self-Transformation
"Patricia Burke has written an enchanting collection of powerful stories with healing metaphors on almost every page. Breathe Deeply! is enlightened reading."
--Charles L. Whitfield, M.D., author of Memory and Abuse and Healing the Child Within and
Barbara Harris Whitfield, author of Spiritual Awakenings
"Reading Breathe Deeply! is like opening a treasure chest full of jewels. These are stories that can help us remember who we really are and return us to what really matters. Patricia Burke invites us to enter these worlds with eyes wide open to the beautiful, yet terrifying paradox of life... to worlds where joy and sorrow live side by side, where freedom is discovered by going through the gateway of fear, where light is born of darkness. These are stories that can help us remember who we really are and return us to what really matters."
--Joseph Jastrab, author of Sacred Manhood, Sacred Earth
"The finely crafted stories in BREATHE DEEPLY nourish and sustain my faith in the healing power of metaphor."
--Camilla Bayliss, Ph. D
"I have given Breathe Deeply! to the members of my extended family. I think your book can help provide a connecting thread for us all. It's really nice for families to have a new mythology that is more appropriate for the times. Breathe Deeply ! is that new mythology."
--Lydia Kitfield, founder of the Institute for Biodynamic Shelter, Edgecomb, ME
"This is a wonderful book! I've shared it with others and other therapists as well. Thanks so much!"
--Liz Ward, Bucksport, ME
It's a journey we all face sooner or later-- the journey inward. And in so doing, if we persist in going deeper into our psyches, we invariably encounter aspects of ourselves we'd rather not look at-- that in many cases we have spent a lifetime trying to forget.
Imagine, now, instead of being alone, facing the pain of childhood trauma and unmet needs, you had magical creatures to guide you through a mystical place beyond time and space, to help you remember who you really are.
It wouldn't be so scary, would it?
That's just the gift Maine author Patricia Burke has given us, with her latest book, Breathe Deeply! Healing Stories for the Soul. Here is a collection of 14 stories written in the time-honored tradition of the fairy tale. And as with the best of that genre, the stories are entertaining, uplifting and a delight to read.
Burke's tales, born of her own experience, transport us effortlessly into another realm where monsters of darkness live side by side with winged beings of beauty and light. And don't such images serve nicely to describe the way it often seems, inside our heads?
Most of Burke's child-heros, both human and otherwise, inhabit worlds of duality and separation. Born into innocence and wholeness, they become lost and sink into despair. But invariably they discover that there's a spark inside of them that has never left them, even as they face the worst of their feelings of helplessness and hopelessness.
Several of these stories explore the devastating and lasting effects that emotional and physical abuse can have on a child. In an especially touching tale called The Great Wise Dolphin, a young dolphin named Jewel becomes engulfed by the cruel Jinjara, a "Menacing stranger" who "has his way with her." The Jinjara threatens her family if she tells, and so she repeats over and over, "I must not tell. I must not tell." After many such encounters with the Jinjara, Jewel learns to leave her body, but by doing so deactivates her sonar and becomes alienated from the pod.
With this tale and others, Burke offers us keys to open the long-locked doors of our psyche dipping back into childhood to show how lasting can be the effects of childhood traumatic events. The only solution, Burke shows us again and again , is to be a hero-- to go back and revisit the source of pain in order to reawaken our life force.
These are stories at once simple and profound-- yet packaged gently, softly, in such a way to rekindle hope that if these childlike heros can do it, so can we.
Gail Rossi
Inner Guide