My friend, Johanna Maaghul, just completed a book, The Prodigal Family: A Spiritual Roadmap for Family Reconciliation.
It’s a guide to transforming one’s relationships with family members and with oneself, in order to reach a place of greater forgiveness and ultimate healing. It’s about creating a new way to think about and thrive with those we love.
Here is what Johanna has to say about The Prodigal Family:
“Many of us can identify with the prodigal son’s story, following a desire to leave the life in which we were raised to seek out a reality that more closely aligns with our authenticity. We may even have been fortunate enough to find a moment of real awakening and a return to ourselves on this journey.
Ironically, however, it is once reunited with our true essence that we are often met with an unrelenting desire to return home. Suddenly we realize that our authenticity includes the family we grew up in. They were not just a reflection of our false life – they were part of who we really are all along. Yet it is this return home that is often the most difficult as we revisit relationships with family members who are far away, emotionally unavailable or even no longer with us. As we contemplate the challenges of such a return, we may want to consider the following:
What we leave on the table with our family relationships may well prove to be some of the most powerful and spiritually healing material available to us during our earthly journey – our grist for the soul mill. As with the prodigal son, the role our family has played in our life is an important one and what our family brings out in us offers us great opportunities for further personal growth. They are at the heart of our learning, essential to the ‘soulular’ transformations that we came here to embody. As we trace and even rebuild these connections, we may come to see and appreciate these individuals as members of our own spiritual Olympic team on our journey here on Earth.”
Johanna recently discussed the book on KSVY radio in Sonoma, CA, where she lives with her husband and children, ages 10, 12 and 14. “We have to find forgiveness within each other and try to heal,” Johanna said.
She added that after undergoing treatment for breast cancer two years ago, she truly realized the power of love in ones life and the role it plays in healing. In order to heal, Johanna said, “You have to have access to people who love you and find that love in yourself.” She added, “Going through the cancer and coming out on the other side has shown me that there is an element to healing beyond the medical world.”
She also talked about the example that her journey has set for her children. “The Greatest gift to children is your ability to have humility, to set an example for them so that they can go out into the world realizing that they don’t have to be perfect.” In other words, that forgiveness, to self and others, comes from within.
Johanna will be at Reader’s Books, 130 E. Napa St. in Sonoma Thursday, September 24, 7:30 pm.
You can order The Prodigal Family here or on Amazon.
