Rabbit Warrior: A Cape Cod Pilgrimage of Healing and Self-discovery

Make sure to check out Masthof's website for more great books like this one! Rabbit Warrior is a captivating memoir of a transformative journey of renewal and discovery. Disoriented by intense mourning over the loss of both her mother and sister within a short time span, the author found consolation and reconciliation on a pilgrimage of solace to her beloved Cape Cod home. Emotionally overwhelmed, Janet turned inward for personal healing and wholeness. As she quietly contemplated the meaning of life and death, the Cape's wildlife became a voice for inspiration and revelation. Horseshoe crabs, lobsters, a great blue heron, and rabbits "spoke" to her of life: change and evolution, pain and suffering, death and dying. Supported on her journey by daily journal writing that exposed persons, places and memories stored deep within, she unmasked falsehoods, gave up protective "magical thinking," and examined relationships in an effort to live a more authentic life. Writers and fellow soul-searching travelers helped Janet dispel guilt, expunge destructive messages and peel away emotional layers accumulated over decades. As she traversed her soul, Janet resolved to move ever deeper towards her core, her spiritual center. A summer that began with overwhelming sorrow mixed with angry confusion, ended with transformative feelings of enlightenment, forgiveness, love and rebirth. Janet hopes that both her memoir, as well as her summer reading list, will provide a template for other Rabbit Warriors who might wish to undertake their own liberating journey as well.

"Rabbit Warrior reflects the fullness of life's journey. I didn't want to put it down. I felt as if I had a window into a full life, written with courage, integrity and perseverance." --Sheila Murphy, author and Cardinal House poet

"Janet Calhoun's courageous vulnerability in this book is stunning. As she seeks healing from personal loss and inner pain, she turns to other writers for help and inward into herself. Her beloved Cape Cod provides the refuge she needs, and it is there that she observes, questions, probes, and relentlessly seeks peace and closure. She submits to the journey and creates a rhythm between the pain of the past and the beauty and solitude of the present. Finding parallels in nature, she allows it to instruct her with its lessons about vulnerability, protections, following instincts, and accepting outcomes. Read this book and you'll be talking to the animals, too. And you'll be asking yourself a lot of questions. Calhoun inspires us to face our own pain and grief with the determination to heal." --Dolores Parsil, author of Lancaster's Good Man, John Piersol McCaskey

"As a fellow memoirist, I admire Calhoun's willingness to go to those sometimes painful places in our lives and emerge with a renewed spirit about life. Already, Rabbit Warrior has enabled this reader to move on with her life and achieve happiness. This memoir has had a profound influence on me. Thank you, Janet, for going to those places before me and searching for truth . . . it really does set us free. The 'rabbit' hops throughout the memoir, reminding us of the journey's universal truths." --Marra Giuliano, memoir writer