Synopsis
The Transparent Feather...and other gifts from Berry Berry Morgan, a prize-winning author living out her days in a nursing home, works out a unique partnership with an aspiring writer. BJ Appelgren will transcribe Berry's memoirs, and in return Berry will help develop BJ's writing. The unanticipated friendship at a critical time in both women's lives surprises them. While working on her memoirs, Berry creates a unique course in writing that causes BJ to re-examine the inner turmoil of her baffling perceptions regarding death and the mystery of after-life. The elder's optimistic influence does not end with her death. Unexpected events conspire to bring The Transparent Feather to a life-affirming conclusion, and BJ, herself, to a belated coming-of-age. This book speaks to anyone who has had an intuitive experience but whose rational outlook may have gotten in the way of appreciating the true meaning. Excerpt from The Transparent Feather... "Officially I'm allowed my sherry only in the evening, but the pain is getting worse. Would you pour me just half a cup?" she asked, pointing to the plastic water cups on the sink. I paused to think about giving her the sherry, finally saying, "But you're not supposed to have it." "Oh, is this like my swallowing the mouthwash?" she snapped. "You fussing over the rules of my superb medical treatment? Take a look at me. Are we talking about preserving my good health?" About the Author BJ Appelgren has been an artist, teacher, potter, executive director of a non-profit agency, counselor, and writer of an alternative health newsletter--but it is in writing 'literature,' she has re-discovered art as revelation. Originally from Chicago, she has lived in the Shenandoah Valley of West Virginia for over twenty-five years.
About the Author
I have been a student and teacher of personal change beginning as an artist educated at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. After years as a graphic designer and art teacher, I developed a class called Perceptions that used the art experience as a venue for students to examine their attitudes and beliefs about themselves and others. During my life I have practiced as an artist, teacher, potter, eight years as executive director of a non-profit advocacy agency for people with handicapping conditions, author of Healing Arts Report, a newsletter about the new life paradigm including information about complementary and alternative medicine (CAM), and as a licensed counselor. I see life as a continuing process of directing attention and learning in order to maintain balance. Emotions, physical well-being, life style, the surrounding culture, and relationships are all aspects of wholesome living. I also bring this point of view into my writing. In recent years I have published two memoirs. Sunny Side Up is about an English esoteric and experimental school for adults created by the philosopher JG Bennett in the early 70s when thousands of young adults were searching for spiritual truth and sustainable alternatives to a culture of growing materialism. The intense live-in program provided contradictions as well as rich lessons for us students. The Transparent Feather, an earlier memoir, documents my relationship with the well-known Southern writer, Berry Morgan, whose stories were published regularly in The New Yorker from 1966 to 1988. My continuous education includes studies with gifted mentors in Gestalt and Jungian psychology, Emotional Freedom Techniques, meditation, visualization, shamanic technique, cosmology, subtle energies, and related topics.
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