Since I’ve started following Viv’s blog, I’ve always found her stories really gripping. They are well-told, delightful to read and so cleverly plotted that I get that mixed feeling a good book always gives me of eagerness to find out what happens next and not wanting the story to end.

I was privileged to read one of Viv’s novels Strangers and Pilgrims. The emotional and psychological impact it has had on me is so profound that I had to wait for some time for my thoughts to crystallise before I could express them. I shall not disclose any details about the plot, but to make my point I will explain that the characters in the book are all people who have been trying hard to deal with the issues of grief and loss in their lives. They come to know there is way of healing broken hearts, a place of retreat, the Wellspring, where they will not be allowed unless they have tried everything else and nothing has worked for them. So they all go for this final opportunity to get their lives back. In fact, they undertake the challenging but rewarding journey to who they really are.

Joining them along the way has been a most extraordinary experience for me. As they each gradually approached their most essential insight that would open the door to their true self, so did I. In some magical way I became part of the story while the personages revealed various aspects of my own personality and my life.

Closing the final page, I knew why “my heart is broken” and why I feel “I am dying inside”.

The truth is always simple. It’s just that frequently we are too blind to see it until someone finds a delicate and subtle way of pointing it to us. Otherwise we may reject it as unacceptable just because we don’t want to believe it.

Of course, this is only my personal experience, but I am convinced that Strangers and Pilgrims is the type of writing that has an individual message for everyone.

Awareness is the first important step towards making a change. I know it will take time and there will be twists and turns and mounds to overcome, but I am determined to find my Wellspring.

Thank you, Viv, for the wisdom in your words.

Shiona

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