Amid the many obstacles she and her husband, Michael, face after his diagnosis with a chronic illness, Suzanne Marriott learns to be a compassionate caregiver both for him and, ultimately, for herself. Through love, psychological insights, and spiritual inquiry, she cultivates her abilities—and gains the courage to confront a medical system that often saves her husband but at other times threatens his life. Despite Michael’s many hospitalizations, he makes miraculous recoveries that allow fun and adventure back into their lives, including a numinous experience with dragonflies. When Suzanne faces her own medical crisis, their world is once again shaken—yet throughout it all, love is their bond, one even death cannot sever. Candid and illuminating, Marriott’s story of growth through caregiving will appeal to anyone facing a life-changing crisis.
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What People Are Saying
I am in awe of Suzanne Marriott. I just finished her book, sobbing from the ordeal she went through with her husband Michael’s MS and agog at the way she went through it. She is a searingly honest writer who takes you into a world that is breathtaking in its intimacy, love, and lucidity. She is a deep traveler, a spiritual adventurer, and not only a survivor but a thriver. This is a no-holds-barred memoir by a woman who can lift you out of life’s tight places and help you to breathe, to flow with love, to believe.
—Judith Fein, Award-winning travel journalist, author of Life is a Trip, The Spoon From Minkowitz, and How to Communicate with the Dead, teacher, speaker, and blogger about Transformative Travel for PsychologyToday.com
In her memoir, Suzanne draws on her background in transpersonal psychology to access the spiritual and psychological resources that guide her growth as a caregiver. Empowered by inner wisdom figures, dream revelations, and shamanic and Tibetan Buddhist practices, she develops the inner resources she needs to support her husband in his battle with a chronic illness. This memoir is a gift to anyone dealing with their own feelings of grief and loss.
—Dr. Marilyn Schlitz, Professor of Transpersonal Psychology and President of the Academic Faculty at Sofia University and CEO/President Emeritus and Senior Fellow at the Institute of Noetic Sciences
Watching for Dragonflies is an inspirational story of personal growth through adversity that will bring comfort and companionship to other caregivers. An intimate and empowering memoir.
—Rachel Howard, author of The Lost Night and The Risk of Us
In Watching for Dragonflies, Suzanne Marriott writes about her journey with her husband through the good times and the moments that challenge their relationship after his diagnosis of MS. It’s a story of love, letting go, and working together as a couple to live fully with awareness and growth on their spiritual journey of body and soul. This book is an important testament about the ups and downs of being a caregiver, and useful to anyone facing health challenges with someone they love.
—Linda Joy Myers, author The Forger of Marseille, The Power of Memoir, and Song of the Plains
In Watching for Dragonflies, Suzanne Marriott generously shares her deeply spiritual journey as a caregiver to her husband who suffers from multiple sclerosis. In the throes of loss, disappointment, and pain, courage and love keep arising to meet each challenge. This is an honest and inspiring story of how true intimacy can help carry us through seemingly unbearable loss.
—Jim Cunningham, Physical Therapist, Marriage and Family Therapist, specializing in Trauma Resolution
Suzanne Marriott’s caring memoir of her love, marriage, joy, grief and spiritual seeking and of the distresses and challenges of her long caregiving is stunningly honest and inspiring.
—Judith Van Herik, Professor Emerita of Religious Studies, Penn State University
Services for—and recognition of—family caregivers simply must improve. Honest storytelling like that in Watching for Dragonflies will start a revolution.
—Gretchen Staebler, author of Mother Lode: Confessions of a Reluctant Caregiver
Suzanne’s intimate story of living through the diagnosis, long decline and death of a loved partner helps one imagine the unimaginable in such a human way. By sharing her story, she helps us face our own fears, and to see that such challenges can bring even deeper connection.
—Kathryn McCamant, author Cohousing: A Contemporary Approach to Housing Ourselves and Creating Cohousing: Building Sustainable Communities.