Spoiler Alert: Didn't See That Coming: Putting Life Back Together When Your World Falls Apart by Rachel Hollis

I keep checking books out of the library. Putting them on hold and then picking them up from the satellite library location. It is a lot of effort it seems for someone to find the book, have it sent to a different library, for me to pick it up curbside only to not finish the library book. This has been the theme for me this year. It's not due to the lack of time. You do know when something is important enough to you, you just make the time for it, don't you? I think my problem has just been a lack of wanting to read the actual books I've checked out. Recommendations made to me, but when my heart wasn't into reading them then it's hard to actually exert the energy to read books that you had no desire to read in the first place. So during the pandemic, Rachel and Dave Hollis announced they were divorcing. This was somewhat shocking as this was a woman and a couple who seemed to have all of their stuff together. Their cute selves were always showing up on my Facebook pages. I never watched, but I could see that many were. I had read both of Rachel's previous books and event went to see her movie when it was released in theaters. She was also a speaker at our Arbonne annual conference last year so I had followed her. I had followed her, but not really followed her or bought any of her services, etc. When I heard the news, I felt sad for her. Then I read the comments. Hundreds of comments from people saying that she was a fraud. She and Dave had given out marriage advice to their followers. Maybe even had paid marriage retreats? I have no idea since I didn't follow her closely. Lots of people felt scammed by her, but all I felt for her was sympathy. (Or is it empathy? I always get confused). No one marries another person and has children and adopts another child only to have it end in divorce. No one ever imagines that this is how everything would play out. I don't need to know the details of her marriage to feel sadness for her and her soon to be ex-husband and their four kids. Of course there were some comments who felt the same as me and felt for her, felt for what she and Dave might be experiencing and going through. So yesterday I finished this book. I made it a point to finish one library book and it was a fairly quick read. I found myself at various times crying at certain sentences because I could relate to every painful sentence she wrote and remembering painful times in my life. However, her book was one filled with hope as well. The fact that someone could hit very hard times in their life and come out stronger and better for that experience. I feel this to the core of my very being of all of the painful stuff, has made me who I am today. I went back and looke at reviews and a lot of people didn't like this book. Found it depressing and maybe even a little redundant from her previous books, but I actually liked that it seemed a little bit more authentic. That's what I think most people want to see is authenticity. They don't want to see the perfect couple coming to give marriage advice only to have it end in divorce. I think most of her viewers would have been more compassionate had they come out and said, "We don't have our stuff together. We have problems like everyone else. We are in counseling." Instead they tried to make it appear that all was well when it really wasn't. And at the same time, I also think that they have a right to their privacy. They don't have to share with the world anything they don't want to. That's our right to live the life that we choose to and to share what we want with the world.