Witness to the Fire : Creativity and the Veil of Addiction

Rating:
Summary: alcoholism & creativity
Review: Never have I seen anything quite like this. This is the definitive book on creativity. & When you don't create, ahhh, the ills that befall us. We fall into an addictive pattern trying desperatedly to recreate that atonement w/God. Failing that, one either drinks, or does whatever to replicate that feeling one more time. Again & again. This book revealed the essence alcoholism. Why certain people drink or create. Simple as that. I've reread this one @ least 2x now. Enjoy your journey.

Rating:
Summary: alcoholism & creativity
Review: Never have I seen anything quite like this. This is the definitive book on creativity. & When you don't create, ahhh, the ills that befall us. We fall into an addictive pattern trying desperatedly to recreate that atonement w/God. Failing that, one either drinks, or does whatever to replicate that feeling one more time. Again & again. This book revealed the essence alcoholism. Why certain people drink or create. Simple as that. I've reread this one @ least 2x now. Enjoy your journey.

Rating:
Summary: Inspiring
Review: This is a unique and courageous book, as heartening to the artist as to the addict in each of us. It is a marvelously distilled meditation on creativity's darkness en route to the light. Leonard has deftly woven literary, spiritual, and psychological treatments of the dark night of the soul into a seamless tapestry, and found precious meaning in some of the most devastating aspects of human experience. For anyone facing their own darkness, this book is a welcome and comforting companion, an inspiring guide, and a very wise friend.

Rating:
Summary: An Appreciation
Review: This is actually an appreciation - not a literary review. I am an alcoholic in recovery and have an immense gratitude to Linda for writing this book. In her book I found answers, or rather experiences I could relate to, so similar and fitting to many issues burning and un-explained within me. My daimon has been enriched and my recovery program enhanced as a result of reading her great work. I have become a survivor (witness) to the road less travelled up the ladder out of the Abyss - I am no longer terrified to visit that void of darkness because I understand the burning issues of Creativity and Addiction parallels and inter-relations all that much better for reading her book. I am able, daily, one step at a time, to unshackle myself as a hostage to my addiction and choose to harness my creativity productively as a result of being a student of "Witness to the Fire". And I am a student of her work still, and always will be, due to my acceptance of my powerlessness over my lifelong disease and my need for every tool I can find to keep me healthy and strong. But I have chosen to let My Higher Power guide my daily existence and can therefore cope and be creative once more. Linda's book is constantly next to my bedside along with my "Big Book" and "My Recovery Book" - in daily use during my prayers and meditations. You helped save my life Linda - Thank You. Colin Tatham

Rating:
Summary: An Appreciation
Review: This is actually an appreciation - not a literary review. I am an alcoholic in recovery and have an immense gratitude to Linda for writing this book. In her book I found answers, or rather experiences I could relate to, so similar and fitting to many issues burning and un-explained within me. My daimon has been enriched and my recovery program enhanced as a result of reading her great work. I have become a survivor (witness) to the road less travelled up the ladder out of the Abyss - I am no longer terrified to visit that void of darkness because I understand the burning issues of Creativity and Addiction parallels and inter-relations all that much better for reading her book. I am able, daily, one step at a time, to unshackle myself as a hostage to my addiction and choose to harness my creativity productively as a result of being a student of "Witness to the Fire". And I am a student of her work still, and always will be, due to my acceptance of my powerlessness over my lifelong disease and my need for every tool I can find to keep me healthy and strong. But I have chosen to let My Higher Power guide my daily existence and can therefore cope and be creative once more. Linda's book is constantly next to my bedside along with my "Big Book" and "My Recovery Book" - in daily use during my prayers and meditations. You helped save my life Linda - Thank You. Colin Tatham