Chance of Rain edition by Catherine D'Angelo Meade Religion Spirituality eBooks
Download As PDF : Chance of Rain edition by Catherine D'Angelo Meade Religion Spirituality eBooks 
I plunked away on my great-grandmother’s upright repeatedly, too slowly, painfully until I got it right. I was 38 years old then and facing the inevitability of becoming a widow. ‘He gives and takes away’ and the pain of that loomed dark in our future. The words of the song rang out with the choice we were being called to make. Would we still sing if He took away? My husband was battling pancreatic cancer, and I was singing about God in the living room while I taught myself to play piano.
It didn’t let me alone. The song played in my head, kept popping up in other places as confirmation of the lesson I was supposed to learn, not the one on which keys to press to get the chords right, but about deciding to accept what life could bring. It prompted me to choose between darkness and light, to look toward the love. It offered a reason to stay away from the bitterness and anger that often follows hard times like these. Months later, while the worship leader played that song at Andy’s funeral, I smiled up at God with my broken heart. Chance of Rain is about how I did that.
My faith grew through this trial. How else could I stand after a funeral? How could I smile in my grief? Losing the tremendous love of my spiritual partner changed me. Those that followed the story as it unfolded were up close to the miracle of those changes. I want to share this story now with those who missed it.
During Andy’s illness, I kept our large circle of family, friends, fellow faculty members and students aware of his medical progress through email. Those emails, originally intended to just inform, became inspired works of healing and perseverance. They took others on the journey with us. Those emails are woven in between the narrative of Chance of Rain to share the real-life experience that enriched our faith to carry us through. The private replies to those emails were continued encouragement from the cheerleaders that sat on the sidelines watching us in a deep Job-like trial. We were standing strong of faith as an example to those who watched, though at the time, we thought they were the ones encouraging us. Iron sharpens iron.
Bruno Bettleheim theorized that children love to hear the tragic parts of fairy tales to imagine their fear of losing a parent, for example, without real risk. The same might be said for the mourners who came to pay their respects for Andy. Though their motivation in attending was based on a love for us both, people also wanted to see how one of their worst fears would play out losing a spouse. They imagined themselves in my position. It’s what made them cry even if they didn’t know Andy very well. They pictured how they would be or how they would act if it were their life and not mine.
Then there’s the smiling. The smiling confuses everyone. People imagined how tragic and devastating the death of their spouse would be, and they were baffled by my strength. Many complimented me on it. I have tried my best to make it clear to anyone I’ve spoken to that I am a complete and utter baby. I am a whiner and a crier and a complainer. I worry to the point of exhaustion and illness. That’s not strength. The strength that they saw through this trial was God-given. I wish I’d known that for those wasted days of my youth that I let panic and anxiety rule me. Brokenness brought me to a place of heightened awareness about the voice of God and how to listen better for it. Practice at it has brought me to a place of trust. With that trust comes a great peace that looks like strength during impossibly hard days.
My journal from the year that Andy died is full of the raw misery that kept my thoughts prisoner during the darkest days. While that journal has value to me personally, it will stay in storage to spare readers the runny-nosed, teary-eyed details. Instead, Chance of Rain, tells the narrative of how my faith made it possible to smile and even laugh through the tears.
Chance of Rain edition by Catherine D'Angelo Meade Religion Spirituality eBooks
A powerful, riveting story about a "before and after" moment in life. A gifted writer and talented storyteller, D'Angelo Meade generously shares her story, from which so many life lessons can be gleaned.Product details
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Chance of Rain edition by Catherine D'Angelo Meade Religion Spirituality eBooks Reviews
I loved this book! I laughed & cried. I felt her pain & the healing hand of the Lord that guided & comforted her.
Each time a talented story teller speaks of life we are taken deep into our humanity. Catherine does this masterfully and in the process we are restored. A gift
Though I have never experienced the loss of a spouse, I have experienced profound loss of both a physical and emotional nature. I have experienced the struggle of maintaining my faith and building a closer relationship with God, particularly through difficult times. This inspiring, well-written, easy read, is a story that anyone can relate to. I highly recommemd it and will be recommending it to everyone I know!
What an honest, truthful and amazing depiction of love, loss, faith, grief and hope. This is everything I am and have been feeling since 12/30/2016 when I lost my Mom; except for the hope part. I know the peace and restoration will come with time. That is the very slight bit of hope I have. Thank you Cathy, for sharing this with me.
A heartfelt trip into the world of Cancer. A truly personal story with raw emotion. I recommend this book for those who are going through or have lost someone from cancer as well as someone on the outside looking in. Very insightful.
I'm not one to read a book in one or two sittings. I couldn't put this down.
Catherine is tenderly, passionately, unflinchingly honest about a beautiful/agonizing time in her life. Her writing invites you inside her heart and mind as she shares her journey. No sugar coating here, this is vibrantly real. Well worth the read!
I just finished reading the book. It was truly awesome from cover to cover. Catherine's story is inspiring. I love how she pours her heart out onto every page. I know the book wasn't written for me in particular, but when I read it, I feel like she's speaking to just me, and I'm sure everyone else who reads it will too. It is a heart wrenching true story of loss and redemption which left me hoping there's more to come in the form of a sequel.
A powerful, riveting story about a "before and after" moment in life. A gifted writer and talented storyteller, D'Angelo Meade generously shares her story, from which so many life lessons can be gleaned.
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