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Mary Jane GrantMary Jane Grant is an experienced writer, a professor of creative thinking, a consultant in marketing, and a student/practitioner of mindfulness.
Her first book is a meditative memoir set in London, following the author as she discovers how to recover from grief to find a richer experience of life, love and connection. After the shock of mid-life betrayal and divorce dredges up deep sadness from a lifetime of loss, Mary Jane flees her native Canada but she cannot escape her mind, despite everything she knows academically about mindfulness and creative thinking. One misty day in a cemetery, as she walks among the famous and the unknown, she comes to the stark realisation: if life isn’t now, it’s literally never. And so, against the backdrop of London’s much-loved places, she teaches herself how to be present and allow all of life – from the beautiful to the terrifying - to rush into the moment. Mary Jane’s story is by turns heartbreaking and uplifting, yet relatable, as it examines how to heal hurt by focusing on each moment. She doesn’t go to a retreat to meditate and then comes back to live her life; she simply lives her life, but more awake and engaged than she has ever been. And as she gradually moves towards acceptance and happiness she uncovers six strategies that help her trade sadness and worry for contentedness and calm. Hodder will publish in 2019. Visit Mary Jane Grant's website |
'A quietly contemplative book, this is at one level an expression of life through sensory perception. But it is far from a superficial exercise in mindfulness. The author drags herself from grief and loss by reconnecting with her senses, and with every smell and touch takes a step further away from the void of depression. A tale of loss and hope, of strength drawn from truly inhabiting the moment.'
Raynor Winn, author of The Salt Path
'Mary Jane takes us through the streets of London and into the French countryside while she grapples with the raw wounds of love and loss. As her thoughts swirl, she begins to inhabit the sensory -- slurping salty oysters outside a fishmonger’s in Primrose Hill, inhaling the spicy scent of tea in a shabby chic Camden café, hiking Hampstead Heath alone on a windy Christmas Day, and feeling the cool embrace of cotton sheets in her hideaway in France. As we take this journey with her, we find ourselves in the hands of a sharp observer, an openhearted traveler whose gifts of grace and clarity show us how to experience our own vivid life, one small pleasure at a time.' Lorri Neilsen Glenn, author of Threading Light: Explorations in Loss and Poetry
Raynor Winn, author of The Salt Path
'Mary Jane takes us through the streets of London and into the French countryside while she grapples with the raw wounds of love and loss. As her thoughts swirl, she begins to inhabit the sensory -- slurping salty oysters outside a fishmonger’s in Primrose Hill, inhaling the spicy scent of tea in a shabby chic Camden café, hiking Hampstead Heath alone on a windy Christmas Day, and feeling the cool embrace of cotton sheets in her hideaway in France. As we take this journey with her, we find ourselves in the hands of a sharp observer, an openhearted traveler whose gifts of grace and clarity show us how to experience our own vivid life, one small pleasure at a time.' Lorri Neilsen Glenn, author of Threading Light: Explorations in Loss and Poetry