Juli Brenning

I am...

A mom. A wife. A sister. A daughter. A friend. A teacher and a writer. A remarkably ordinary human….I spend my time walking dogs, practicing yoga, drinking wine, reading, parenting and daughtering.

So Now What? (the cancer edition)

Is cancer in real time. It’s a collection of my day to day musings, frustrations, fears and realities during my treatment and recovery. But it’s more than just a story of cancer, it’s a story about my restoration or tikkun, which in Hebrew means to restore or repair.

I love the idea of restoring - art, old homes, old relationships - the idea of bringing something back to life. I wasn’t close to dying, but I was close to losing myself; and the time I spent “restoring” was the closest I’ve ever felt to God. In fact, now that I am out of recovery and learning how to live again on the other side, I find it incredibly hard to strike a balance between the person I became during cancer and the person I am after cancer.

The author, Zora Neale Hurston once said, “There are years that ask questions and years that answer.” 2023 was definitely the year that asked questions…and 2024 seems to be about the answers.

My goal was to write a book that captured those questions and provided a place for the reader to craft her own answers. A place where my voice can be used to help her find her voice and then ultimately make her own choices. There is so much power in answering the question - So Now What?

What does now look like?

How will you react?

What path do you want to take?

You have a say! In this. In your restoration, in your existence, in your answers. You are the architect and author of your own story.

I hope by creating this book as an immersive journaling experience, the reader will feel empowered and emboldened. That this will be an opportunity for the reader to immerse herself into my story to help her write her own.

I am just a very, very ordinary human. Doing ordinary human things, if you too are an ordinary human, then we should be the best of friends.

I also wrote a book about a little girl who hunts frogs in a mountain pond. It's charming, if I do say so myself! It's called Maggi and Milo.