The Relationship Book by Rachel Awes

THE RELATIONSHIP BOOK by Rachel Awes, MA, LP, is billed as a soulful, transformational, and artistic inventory of your connective life -- and it does not disappoint. I came to this book from a place of deep loss, my mother had just died, and I could not imagine what my life could or would look like without my life’s most significant and influential relationship.

Rachel Awes is a psychologist whose therapeutic practice focuses on self-esteem, affirmation, and creative play. As I worked my way through THE RELATIONSHIP BOOK, chapter by chapter, I felt a warm blanket of love envelope me. Rachel delves into all the facets of our relationships – the difficult ones and the carefree ones – our relationships with other people, yes, but also with community, with divinity, with animals, and with ourselves. Gratitude and acceptance are at the core of all these relationships, as well as living with intention and authenticity.

This page in particular hit hard, written from the perspective of a daughter sitting in that sacred moment with her mother before her death:

“I will wonder if my words have been kind enough, if I have conveyed enough empathy, listened enough, was present enough. I will hope to forgive myself generously for when I have fallen short and feel a peace wash over me for the moments my love has found a way forward. My (own) ending will be a nod to my beginning, when nearby loved ones searched for my ten fingers and toes. Only later it is I who will be doing the looking, for a beloved hand to hold and essential eyes to gaze into, and it is all that will matter.”

The Relationship Book is full of vibrant colors and images, thought-provoking quotes from Rachel’s clients (with permission, of course) and an invitation, always, always to “become the person you want to be with” so that all your relationships can flow from that place. Most of the time the faces she has drawn throughout the book don’t include eyes, noses, or mouths – they are “listening faces – drawn for you to see your own life in them.”

THE RELATIONSHIP BOOK is Rachel Awes’ fourth book and like the other three, it is an inspiring and whimsical look at all the possibilities of life, an illustrated personal inventory book that uses positive psychology to bring more love and joy into life.

This is Lin Salisbury with Superior Reviews. Listen to my author interviews the fourth Thursday of every month on Superior Reads, WTIP Radio, 90.7 Grand Marais, or stream them from the web at www.wtip.org.