Terry Tempest Williams' Refuge In Refuge, Terry Tempest Williams weaves together her experiences and relationships with family and nature, two major themes of Refuge, as well as two apparently important aspect of Williams’ life. The book is the story of the destruction of her family and the nature surrounding her, but it is these places that are being destroyed are the same places where Terry Tempest Williams finds comfort before, during and after cancer started to consume her life. I believe on the surface it is nature and family that provides her with comfort, but in actuality, it is something beneath the surface. As a young child, Williams was taught through the Mormon teachings to appreciate nature and family, finding God in both. It is through her Mormon faith that Williams is able to survive the pain, suffering and fear cancer causes her. Williams describes the deep-rooted connection between her Mormon faith and her family in the opening pages of Refuge. Through her family, Williams supported her mother and grandmother through their fatal cancers, while acknowledging that her Mormon faith stresses family and community (Williams 13), providing Williams, her mother and her grandmother with a support network through these difficult times. The National Cancer Institute articulates the importance of this support to a cancer patient, suggesting, “that having good information and support services can make it easier to cope,” adding, “friends and relatives can be very supportive,” and concluding with the usefulness of support groups (NCI website www.nci.nih.gov). In Refuge, Williams shows her support by sacrificing her own achievements, stating, “I have traded my position as curator of education for naturalist-in-resistanc... ... middle of paper ... ...cember 2004): 1210-1214. Spiegel, David. “Spirituality and Cancer.” Integrating Research on Spirituality and Health and Well-being into Service Delivery Conference. Bethesda, Maryland. April 2005. Death is another beginning and What happens to families after death? 2005. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Site. April 12, 2005 www.mormon.org Spirituality in Cancer Care: Health Professional Version. March 22, 2005. National Cancer Institute Website. April 11, 2005 www.nci.nih.gov/cancertopics/pdq/supportivecare/spirituality/healtherprofessional.com Support for Women with Breast Cancer. October 30, 2003. National Cancer Institute Website. March 30, 2005. www.nci.nih.gov/cancertopic/wyntk/breast/page5 Expressing Emotions Helps Women with Breast Cancer. June 12, 2000. American Cancer Society Website. March 30, 2005. www.cancer.org
Terry Tempest Williams is fully aware that she is contradicting the church when she writes “women have no outward authority,” yet she still chooses to take part in a ritual of healing that can only be performed by the men. Williams, however, does so in privacy and in the “secrecy of the sisterhood.” The word secrecy hints at the idea of doing something which is not accepted and against certain beliefs of today’s church. She was born and raised in a home of devout Mormons who follow the traditional beliefs of their faith. She acknowledges that the Mormon Church places great importance on obedience. In college she began to question her faith and today would not consider herself an “orthodox Mormon,” although Mormonism still has an impact in her life and work. In her writing, Williams continually contradicts the values of the Mormons.
Jerry Sittser’s book not only brings readers into loss with all its real emotions and pain but it also highlights truths that can be applied to anyone’s life. Sittser’s faith is evident throughout the book and his struggle of finding his faith within his loss and sorrow is encouraging to many. In the end, through his loss, he finds God again and through the writing of his book is now able to offer many insights on the Christian perspectives of sorrow, loss, forgiveness and how mental illness affects families. Sittser inspires readers because they have witnessed that they can too grow and continue living life despite their loss and without forgetting their loss.
Stemming from the core emotions of the human mind, each individual craves the feeling of safety and protection. For many, made obvious through the narratives of Phyllis Wheatley, William Bradford, and Mary Rowlandson, this comfort is found through the providence offered through religion or spirituality. Providence is defined as the protective care of God as a spiritual power. Times were incredibly difficult during the life span of these authors and each is quick to give credit to Christ for His helping hand in their various trials and tribulations. Wheatley, Bradford, and Rowlandson showed how God’s providence affected each of them through the hope, guidance, and protection he offered in the author’s spiritual journeys.
Throughout her experience, she found comfort in her faith, although tested. In her writing, she praises the Lord for situations such as her using oak leaves to tend her wounds (31). As the minister’s wife, she makes sure to make known her devotion to the Lord, referencing the Bible often. She wants her readers to know the power of God and faith in hard times “here Read, you may see an instance of the Sovereignty of God, who doth what he will with his own as well as others; and who may say to him, what dost thou?... That God is indeed the supream Lord of the World”
Tolkien, J. R. R., and Douglas A. Anderson. The Lord of the Rings. Boston: Houghton Mifflin,
"John Ronald Ruel Tolkien." 2014. J.R.R. Inspiration of Tolkiens Ring Website. Feb 01 2014, 09:36 http://www.historytoday.com/lynn-forest-hill/inspiration-tolkiens-ring
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Guide to Online Schools. "A Breakdown of College Education Costs." Guide to Online Schools. N.p., n.d. Web. 7 Dec. 2013. .
Relying exclusively on faith healing and avoiding or delaying conventional treatment for a serious illness like cancer may have serious consequences. Death, disability or other unpleasant outcomes have occurred when faith healing was selected instead of conventional care for serious injuries or illnesses.
Krivak, Andrew. "Author of 'The Rings': Tolkien's Catholic Journey." Commonweal 130.22 (19 Dec. 2003): 10-13. Rpt. in Children's Literature Review. Ed. Dana Ferguson. Vol. 152. Detroit: Gale, 2010. Literature Resources from Gale. Web. 14 Jan. 2014.
With a socially imposed and personal devotion to attain a highly regarded status in his clan, Okonkwo’s life was one that valued traditional authority, customs, and kinship. As a protagonist, Okonkwo’s story exemplifies the altering role of the state as the marching boots of colonialism enter his village, Iguedo. In Chinua Achebe’s novel Things Fall Apart, he illustrates the societal life of the Umuofia clan prior to the arrival of and the encounter with early colonizers - offering an Igbo account of the transformation of local institutions. Once wielded by elders and the spiritually divine, the power of control fell into the hands of foreigners. Worship of ancestors, the supreme deity Chikwu, and other Earth gods transferred to the God revealed in the Bible. The interactions between the institutions of rule, belief, environmental management, and trade are each delicately reliant on each other, so that in Iguedo the ability to rule fails to exist without belief, religious believes are derived from the environment, and the mercy of environmental conditions dictates agricultural trade. Through the life and death of Okonkwo, the novel presents how the experience of the Igbo and their interaction with the state witnessed unquestionable change.
Rushforth, H. (1999). Practitioner review: Communicating with hospitalised children: Review and application of research pertaining to children’s understanding of health an illness. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 40(5), 683-91.
Tacon, Anna. “Meditation as a Complementary Therapy in Cancer,” Family and Community Health. Vol. 26, Issue 1. pp63-73, January – March, 2003. Web. 18 May 2015.
My family has always been a big part of my life, and I have never strayed far from them. With this closeness and open, trusting environment my family and I have dealt with many things together. One specific challenge was related to when my grandmother developed dementia. Throughout this experience my family and I did not participate in any formal religious practices, nor do we use a specific religion in our daily lives. Therefore, I felt the disease process brought my family closer together, even though it was difficult at times. My viewpoint and beliefs around dementia were altered due to the vast, diminishing effects it had on my grandmother, and
Santiago went through many turmoil’s in his life and his story is one of wisdom in defeat from the lengthy time of which he could not catch anything to that of his loss of the marlin to the sharks after such a lengthy battle to catch it then attempt to bring it back to shore. Now I could go on and on like any other paper about all the symbolism in The Old Man and the Sea but no matter what I did while reading it, in almost every aspect it screamed out to me as an impersonation or reflection of Hemingway’s own life in a multitude of ways that no one can deny. The Old Man and the Sea was an allegory referring to the Hemingway’s own struggles to preserve his writing i...