I have a love/hate relationship with self-help/personal-growth books…  On the one hand it is helpful and gratifying to know that it is possible to make it through the darkness and thrive on the other side of it all… on the other none of them really give you the view from the pit.  It’s ugly here and no-one wants to look at it.  Many of them give the briefest of descriptions of the ‘dark days’ and then focus on their steps/ideas/practices that got them out of the mess they were in.  I want to see the pit… did life feel as despairing & hopeless to them as it does to me most days?  Were they breathing in and out through lungs filled with un-heard screams?  Was the pit every bit as deep and dark and ugly as it feels to me today?  I would like to know the view from the pit…  Then I can feel better about my chances of making it out alive.

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