For Your Soul

Broken Open,
Elizabeth Lesser, Villard, June 2005

If you haven’t yet been “broken open” this book can help get you started. And it can do so in the most pleasurable, poignant way. Reading it is like hanging out with a really smart and funny friend who has had a lot of amazing experiences in her life. Most important, someone who’s been willing to learn, learn, learn from them all, and is now without the slightest hesitation willing to pass on what she discovered to you. An eminently readable book.

Satan Says,
Sharon Olds, Univ of Pittsburgh Pr, 1985

If you want to connect with your longing, read Sharon Olds' poems about motherhood. They will open your heart, and guide you in your exploration of your deepest desires as well as possible inner conflicts about parenthood. The book is divided into three sections Daughter, Mother, Journey. I recommend that you read the poems you most connect with outloud to yourself and make these readings a part of your self-healing regimen. I see poetry as powerful body-mind-soul medicine.

You'll See It When You Believe It, The Way to Your Personal Transformation
Dr. Wayne W. Dyer, Avon Books, 1989

If you want to create a miracle, it helps to believe in them. Dr Dyer's writings make it easy to believe.

Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life
Anne Lamott, Doubleday 1994

The essence of our fertility is our creativity and our lust for life. Anne Lamott is a wise and laugh-out-loud-funny friend to help us reconnect with that part of ourselves. I've given dozens of copies as gifts.

Traveling Mercies: Some Thoughts on Faith
Anne Lamott, Pantheon Books 1999

The author in her inimitable fashion shows us a myriad of ways to sustain our faith amidst our trials..

The Clone Age, Adventures in the New World of Reproductive Technology
Lori B. Andrews, Henry Holt and Company, 1999

This is an illuminating, often shocking book that takes us behind the scenes of the scientific-medical-industry of ART. Don't read it if you are considering IVF. But if you want help coming up with reasons not to do ART, this book might be a good place to start.

Time shifting: Creating More time to Enjoy Your Life
Stephan Rechtschaffen, M.D., Doubleday 1998

One of the greatest challenges of the fertility-search is honoring our own rhythm of healing rather than getting caught up in the race against our biological clocks. Dr. Rechtshaffen offers a number of specific simple tools that can help us get back in sync with our bodies and souls. If you feel pressured by the "collective hysteria of the last good egg," this book is for you.