Mary Anne Radmacher - Lean Forward into Your Life: Listen Hard, Live with Intention, and Play with Abandon

I found Lean Forward into Your Life easy to put down. In fact I would put it down at least 20 times an hour. On every page, Mary Anne Radmacher holds up a mirror with angles on each side challenging the reader to examine their thinking and to ask, Are my thought processes presently working for me? The reader is asked to lean forward as if to see his or her own life better, and ponder the risk of introspection. Lean Forward into Your Life is a must read, if you are willing to scrutinize how you have life figured out.

VON HANSEN, NATIONAL SALES TRAINER

I have worked with Mary Anne for three years and after having read her book can attest that she does indeed lean forward into life in the presence of the inmates she worked with. Mary Ann is a testimony to the concepts she writes about here. I am fortunate to be associated with her generous heart, spirit, and brilliant mind. When I read her book, I laughed, I cried, and pondered often. This book has to be taken in bites. It is too substantial to just breeze through.

FAY A. GENTLE, TRANSITION COORDINATOR, OREGON STATE CORRECTIONAL INSTITUTION

Lean Forward. Or Fall Forward. Or Stumble Forward. It doesn't matter. Here's the best part: in this gem of a book, life is not about correct answers. It's all about showing up. Mary Anne's writing is a great invitation to be present. And to embrace and celebrate the extraordinary in the ordinary.

TERRY HERSHEY, AUTHOR OF SACRED NECESSITIES, SOUL GARDENING, AND GO AWAY, COME CLOSER

As an artist, my work depends on an inspired and creative state of mind, not always easy to find in this hectic world. While my artistic inspiration comes from nature, I have found in these pages solace for sad times, strength for times of confusion and doubt, and laughter to lighten my days.

SUSAN BOURDET, ARTIST AND WRITER

Some years ago in Southern California I entered a shop and was drawn to a display of unique cards. The words were insightful and poetic, the lettering distinctive and artistic. Poetic art, I thought and bought the card for myself. I still have it. It was the first of many Mary Anne cards I have gifted myself with, as well as those I love. How delightful to discover Mary Anne years later and to become engaged in her uncommon work and wisdom. Lean Forward into Your Life is not only poetic art, it is memoir at its most unveiling, wrapped in Mary Anne's gentle guidance for living a fuller, generous life. This is a book of healing and grace meant to give to one's friends and, yes, to give as a gift to oneself. Bravo!

JANE KIRKPATRICK, AUTHOR OF A CLEARING IN THE WILD AND A LAND OF SHELTERED PROMISE

This edition first published in 2014 by Conari Press, an imprint of

Red Wheel/Weiser, LLC

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Copyright 2007, 2014.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from Red Wheel/Weiser, LLC. Reviewers may quote brief passages. Originally published in 2007 by Conari Press, ISBN: 978-1-57324-298-1.

ISBN: 978-1-57324-646-0

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data available upon request

Cover and text design by Maureen Forys

Typeset in Gotham HTF, Horley Old Style MT Std

Cover photograph: Flowerphotos (C) Eye Ubiquitous

Printed in Canada

MAR

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to gina louise bramucci

because you have the courage to go

the compassion to stay.

E veryone knows that life is toughfor some more than others. My mom always taught me that the true test of your character is how you react when things are going badly. Beginning at a very young age, I remember sitting on Mom's bed having hour-long discussions about life, death, and religion. Mom said that true religion was being true to your family, trying not to hurt anyone, and helping others as much as you can. I can remember having those discussions at the age of ten. Ten years later while I was serving in the army and stationed in Italy, my mother was murdered in her antique shop back home in Hot Springs, Arkansas. I cannot remember dealing with that grief because I had to be strong for my father.

After that horrible tragedy, I established the attitude that I had had my tragedy of a lifetime and that was it for me. On Memorial Day, May 28, 2001, our seventeen-year-old daughter, Thea Kay Leopoulos, was run off the highway by a reckless driver careening out of control, and our precious daughter was killed. Less than a year later, my older brother died of a rare illness. In 2004, my wife's father died on the night of November 27th, the birthday of our oldest son. The day he was buried, my wife Linda's mother died from brain cancer. She was buried three days later... on Thea's birthday, December 6th. (And just to add one more note: The day Thea was killed was Linda's brother's birthday.)

Many say that losing a child is the worst thing that can happen. That is true. It blows a hole in your heart and you are never the same. Many people avoid you. Your life as you knew it is over. People think that after a time you should get over it. Every day is a struggle to get up and hopelessness is a feeling you cannot shake. There is nothing you can do to get out of the nightmare and make things the way they were before.

The interesting thing is that those bedtime chats with my mom on death, life, and religion stuck with me. As parents, Linda and I taught our children to never give up on their moral values and to always believe in themselves. Character means to deal with life's adversity by learning from the adversity and to help others with what we learn. When Thea was killed, there was no choice but to practice what we preached, for our boys were watchingand so was Thea.

Linda and I took Thea's seventeen years of light and established the THEA Foundation (www.theafoundation.org). The past five years have been nothing short of amazing. Fifty-five scholarships amounting to over $600,000 have been awarded to graduating high school seniors in Arkansas for their talents in the visual and performing arts. We know they will gain the confidence to lean forward into their lives to pursue their dreams.

The thought of leaning forward into life when times are hard seems totally impossible, even if you want to try. But you knowMary Anne is right. You can lean forward because you must in order to survive in a healthy way. In this motivating book, Mary Anne gives example after example of how she navigated through a difficult childhood and kept on leaning forward throughout her life to become a bright light in this difficult world. Mary Anne set her own circumstances into motionones that helped her live a positive life. She articulates how she made the best of a challenging family life by embracing the simple actions of others who gave her gifts of kindness, friendship, and compassion. Instead of focusing on what she did not have, Mary Anne learned to build a positive attitude about life from the outward gestures of love that were shown to her by others. She learned meaningful answers to the meaning of life and shares her recipe with us in this book. Mary Anne also shares her poetry and personal journal entries that she kept along the way as a reminder to herself about where she began her adventure and where she is today.