There are moments in life when we are knocked off our usual balance, our normalcy, and from that vantage point we can view life in general, and our own lives in particular, at a different level.

This is a simple story about one persons decision to draw out the best from a difficult experience and to use a dramatic break in the regular routine of life as a learning experience about elevating ones life. The story is based upon a surgical experience and a thinkers response to it. The approach also would apply to other experiences like losses of jobs, deaths of loved ones, burning down of houses, spousal affairs, childrens serious illnesses, economic setbacks and any other fracture of the usual activities of life.

If the opportunity to elevate your life through creative response to trauma comes to you, the reader, you might respond through different creative endeavors, by painting, perhaps, or composing, or dancing, or building things, or working, or gardening. The message, however, is still the same: step into the experience, be assured that there is meaning in it for you, ask what you can learn from it, and know that your life will be deepened by both the experience and your response to it.

This is a book about responding to unexpected, unusual, and traumatic experiences in life.

Another personal story with deep philosophical insight from Dr. Diane Harvey, the author of DOCTOR, PATIENT, OBJECT, THING: A Story about a Surgeon and a Teacher.