If You Feel Too Much - Expanded Edition: Thoughts on Things Found and Lost and Hoped For - Hardcover

Jamie Tworkowski; Donald Miller (Foreword)

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1101982721 ISBN 13: 9781101982723

Publisher: Tarcher, 2016

Synopsis

In 2006 Jamie Tworkowski wrote a story called To Write Love on Her Arms about helping a friend through her struggle with drug addiction, depression and self-injury. The piece was so hauntingly beautiful that it quickly went viral, giving birth to a non-profit organisation of the same name. Nine years later, To Write Love on Her Arms (TWLOHA) is an internationally-recognised leader in suicide prevention and a source of hope, encouragement and resources for people worldwide.

Jamie's words have been shared hundreds of thousands of times online. They've shown up on T-shirts and posters and even tattoos. Now, for the first time, Jamie's writing is available in the form of a book. IF YOU FEEL TOO MUCH is a celebration of hope, wonder and what it means to be human. From personal stories of struggling on days most people celebrate to offering words of strength and encouragement in moments of loss, the essays in this book invite readers to believe that it's okay to admit to pain and it's okay to ask for help. IF YOU FEEL TOO MUCH is an important book from one of this generation's most important voices.

About this title

About the Author

Jamie Tworkowski is the founder of To Write Love On Her Arms, a non-profit organisation which aims to present hope and find help for young people struggling with depression, self-injury, addiction and suicide.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

NOTE TO SELF
 
Dear jamie,
 
The only justice is love. Just let it go. You don’t    have to write back. You don’t have to explain. This is not about being right. There is something true inside the song you can’t stop listening to. You don’t feel at home anywhere, but you feel at home when Aaron sings that song. Someone calling you a criminal does not make you a criminal, just as someone calling you a hero does not make you a hero. Nobody gets to name you. Find your identity in the one true place. If someone gives you something, and then takes it back—that’s okay. If someone says something or sees something, and then they don’t—it’s okay. Do not be like some broken lawyer making the same argument over and over again, always reaching for rewind. Guilt and regret, those are awful places. You know that. So don’t live there. Do not despair. Do not be afraid. Grace is the interesting thing. Hope.
 
And God must be a pretty big fan of today, because you keep waking up to it. You have made known your request for a hundred different yesterdays, but the sun keeps rising on this thing that has never been known. Yesterday is dead and over. Wrapped in grace. Those days are grace. You are still alive, and today is the most interesting day. Today is the best place to live. 
 
These things deserve your attention: your family, your friends, the people you will meet today, the strangers with their stories. They say, “We are all in this together.” It is absolutely true. That girl with cancer in her stomach and chaos in her mind. She’s with us. That guy with tears in his eyes and ghosts in his heart. He loved her, and you could see it. You could see it and you told him that it wasn’t his to carry. You told him about grace, and you told him about the song. And you believed it. You were certain of it. So if it’s true for him, then isn’t it also true for you?
 
Wake up. You’re alive.
 
Your Friend,
Jamie
 
PS: And that diamond ring, i know you think about it a lot. i know you don’t know what to do with it. That ring does not define you. It never did. Then or now. You can wear it around your neck. You can throw it to the sea. It doesn’t matter. It’s not your name. You are free.

Edition details

• Publisher: Tarcher
• Publication date: 2016
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1101982721
• ISBN 13: 9781101982723
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 224