Reframe Your Life

Christa Couture reframes the experience of loss for us in her beautiful memoir, How to Lose Everything. In this interview we talk about the questions she gets asked most frequently, her story of loss and the writing process.

Synopsis of her book:

From the amputation of her leg as a cure for bone cancer at a young age to her first child’s single day of life, the heart transplant and subsequent death of her second child, the divorce born of grief and then the thyroidectomy that threatened her career as a professional musician, How to Lose Everything delves into the heart of loss. Couture bears witness to the shift in perspective that comes with loss, and how it can deepen compassion for others, expand understanding, inspire a letting go of little things and plant a deeper feeling for what matters. At the same time, Couture’s writing evokes the joy and lightness that both precede and eventually follow grief, as well as the hope and resilience that grow from connections with others.

Evoking Joan Didion’s The Year of Magical Thinking and Rachel Cusk’s A Life’s Work, Couture explores the emotional and psychological experiences of motherhood, partnership and change. Deftly connecting the dots of sorrow, reprieve and hard-won hope, How to Lose Everything contains the advice Couture is often asked for, as well as the words she wishes she could have heard many years ago. It is also an offering of kinship and understanding for anyone experiencing a loss.”

You can find out more about Christa at her website.

If you have started on your memoir but need help shaping it and getting it ready for publication, Patti M. Hall can coach you through this critical stage. Contact Patti here.

Find out more about Sandy's work with chronic people-pleasers at her website and get started Disappointing More People.

Art crashes into life for author Erica Cantley when she finds herself behind a podium in front of a class of high school seniors, teaching HAMLET as her father died, thousands of miles to the south in Costa Rica.

Interspersing interactions with her teenage students and memories of her father, desperately sick and difficult to reach in his adopted jungle home, Cantley guides her students through HAMLET -- written four centuries ago -- while reflecting upon the impending loss of a parent in the never-ending now.

The result is a powerful memoir of a love that will not die, the timeless story of the bond between parent and child, the magic created by a gifted teacher and willing pupils, and finally, the exploration of the timeless themes of HAMLET, the study in the transition of power through the generations.

For those of you who aren't acquainted with Hamlet - don't let that deter you from this book or podcast. The themes in this book and discussion are themes we can all relate to in our lives.

For more on Erica visit her website.

And your cohosts can be found here: Sandy Reynolds and Patti M. Hall

We had a great time talking to Cait Flanders author of the Wall Street Journal bestseller The Year of Less. It may seem like an odd time to publish a book about opting out and yet, as we discovered, this is the perfect time to get serious about leading an intentional life.

Find out more about Cait here. Follow on IG @caitflanders

Find out more about Sandy here. Follow on IG @sandyareynolds

Find out more about Patti here. Follow IG @pattimhall