Playing It by Heart
Taking Care of Yourself No Matter What
by Melody Beattie
Hazelden, Center City, Minnesota, 1999. 262 pages.
Starred Review.
Melody Beattie is the author of the wonderful books Codependent No More, Beyond Codependency, and The Language of Letting Go. In Playing It by Heart, she gets even more personal and tells her life story.
Her story is incredible — especially incredible that she survived it. She has lived through addiction, time in prison, desperate poverty, hospitalization, failed marriages, the death of a son. And throughout the telling of her story, she draws beautiful, life-affirming insights.
I especially love the way she sums things up toward the end of the book:
“Now there’s at least two ways I can look at all of this. I can say look at everything I’ve had to go through. Or I can stand back and say wow. Look at everything I got to experience, feel, and see. And as much as I’ve resisted and struggled each step of the way, maybe that’s why I am here: to go through all of this and see from my point of view exactly how all these things feel.”
After reading this book, I find myself praying blessings upon Melody Beattie — because of how powerfully she has blessed me. If you want a reminder of how powerfully God can redeem desperate situations, I highly recommend this book.
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