By Kerry Anne King | ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (4 out of 5 stars)
It took me a while to finish this 13th book of mine for the year 2022 due to work, travel (for work, too), and other commitments in my enterprise. But behold, no regrets! This book is heartfelt and satisfies our need for happy endings in the midst of the chaos of our current lives. Hee hee
Thank you to Amazon for giving me $3 book credits! I bought Reminders of Him via Amazon and have gotten book credits to allow me to purchase another book. I was hesitant to use it though because I know the books I want still cost more than $3 because they are all good, to begin with. I kept on scrolling and reading the synopsis of books available in store when I came across this creation by Kerry Anne King, A Borrowed Life.
About the book
This book is about Elizabeth Lightsey. Liz as she preferred; was widowed by her Pastor husband, Thomas Lightsey, and a mother to Abigail. She married young, about 18 years old when Thomas was to be assigned to head a church in Colville. He chose her to be his wife and succumbed to unhappiness as she didn’t fearlessly make choices for her life and her daughter’s.
When Thomas died due to a heart attack, Liz was sad and relieved all at the same time because finally, she could live the life she wanted for herself or so she thought. The journals she hid, the books she read (rather romantic and not about the congregation), and the careers she wanted, she can finally do; but not without drawbacks especially with Abigail.
Liz
When Val, Liz’s best friend, a divorcee, introduced her to the community theater, it was a re-birth for Liz. She loved acting and she thought before long that she could make a career of it until she has gotten married to Thomas. With Thomas, his rules must be obeyed as how God wants them to be, as to how Apostles say in the bible. These trapped Liz for over 30 years and also closed so many doors to Abigail, too. She, later on, had a falling out with her mother but all’s well that ends well.
Maybe this is what hell is, I think. Being given the thing we think we want and having to live with it.
Liz
Our choices and Liz’s choices are no guarantee of a happy life, but we must always try. Life can take a surprising turn and most of the time we are not ready for it. When Liz got pregnant by Lance (her love interest, divorced) at 49, it was really unexpected and terrifying-given her age, her disposition, everything doesn’t add up; but life can take us anywhere, even where we do not have any idea about.
There was a time to break out of this life I’m living, I missed the turnoff. It’s too late for me.
Liz
So many years of burying myself under what was expected of me that I don’t even know what I want.
Liz
When you can’t be you, be somebody else.
Val
When you’re held back from being yourself, from living your gifts, how can you possibly be your best self? If your own life feels out of control, the it’s easier to control somebody else’s. Only, you can’t, you know. Not his. Not mine.
Liz
Takeaway
Before being with somebody else or being a parent to someone, it is essential to know one’s self and ensure that you’d be able to fight off adversities. To love oneself is to show more love for another. Because, how can we give something we don’t have? We can be full of everything and we can share, but if there’s something lacking in our lives, definitely we cannot give that away as help or to show mere gratitude.
Marriage is not a walk in the park. I have never been married and I cannot go out giving advice to people on how marriage should be, but I just know what it should be not-a controlling sphere, a too submissive one. I know it says that a wife should submit to her husband, but is it always right? At this age we live in, I believe what Liz’s too, that women or wives must have equal rights to decide for themselves, for their bodies, for their careers, for the lives they want, because while we adjust everything to motherhood, to being a wife, and being all we can be to sustain a family, we should also not forget to be ourselves, too. Knowing, loving, and supporting our own can make a good family, too. If a woman is happy and satisfied, she sure can also make a good wife, a great mother, and everyone else she needed her family to be.
Loving or at least adjusting or tailor-fitting to a certain situation can make us forget everything all at once, but what’s important at a loss is to stick back to your core and everything may fall into its right pieces again.
Shainne Hostalero 