"Since the time of Freud we have been seduced by our childhoods.We have learned to look to our family history as the ultimate teacher, the critical enzyme that determines how our lives evolve. We feel we are essentially the sum of whatever, as a child, we were shown and taught, looking to the triumphs and ruins of our childhood to illuminate and explain our world and the nature of our place in it.

But what if there are other explanations for our lives? What if the suffering we feel in our heart today is just pain, the pain of growth, the pain of loving, the pain of deep sadness, the pain of being fully alive? Must this pain, this fear or confusion ultimately draw its life from our parents, our siblings, our family history? Or might we simply be feeling the richness of being human, the symphony of sensations a feeling that all flesh is heir to?

It requires a tremendous leap of faith to imagine that our deepest sorrows, our losses and our grief, may become gifts for us. In this book, Wayne Muller explores how the pain and hurt of our lives can become catalysts that bring forth remarkable strength and wisdom, courage and peace. We do not need to repair what we believe is damaged, so much as to awaken what is already alive and well, a deep, spiritual magic that burns bright and refuses to be extinguished."

Price: $12.00 Paperback only, $10.95 Cassette (called Spiritual Gifts of a Painful Childhood)

"Wayne Muller draws the lineage of many rich, spiritual teachings through his fine heart to offer healing to those in need." - Stephen Levine
author of Gradual Awakening

"Brings an awakening to the heart, a gift to the soul, and a healing balm to the spirit."
- Jack Kornfield, coeditor of Stories of the Spirit, Stories of the Heart