Your Life Shoes is a fun, fascinating and thoughtful look at the life of Mary McMichael, complete with the lessons she has learned and guidance and exercises to apply those lessons to our own lives. They say you can never understand someone until you’ve walked a mile in their shoes, but the truth is, we all wear different shoes at different times in our lives. As a shoe lover, Mary has decided to take the metaphor a step further, comparing various life problems with different types of shoes and then exploring how those situations can make us stronger.

Mary begins by using the shoe metaphor in regards to people, saying, “People are like shoes. We walk through our lives just by looking around us and people get our attention. We like how they look, how they sound, and how they sound. They introduce themselves. We explore them a bit more in conversation and they intrigue us. We like them and decide to invest in them. We spend more time with them and build relationships with them. As we spend more time with them, we begin to notice their idiosyncrasies, they ‘hurt our feet.’ We keep them anyway, because they look good, make us look good, or make us feel good. “

This discussion prepares us for the many relationships Mary has experienced during her life, including three husbands, but also relationships with children, siblings, parents, and friends. Some of these relationships turned out well, others were nothing short of disasters, but all were opportunities to learn more about herself. And we cannot forget the many relationships he has had with dog-dogs that have been his greatest consolation on several occasions.

Magic flows throughout the stories, although Mary might call it the Law of Attraction or simply faith. Several times he tells us how incredible and frustrating situations changed when he decided to change his thoughts or give his power to God. His dog, who had been missing for months, came back to his life within thirty minutes once he released him and let God take care of the situation.

Mary has learned many lessons from her dogs and any dog ​​lover will be able to relate to her affection for them. One of my favorite passages in the book has to do with what dogs are capable of teaching us: “I have heard it said that dogs live short lives because they are already perfect. They love unconditionally and completely and are loyal to their own fault. Human beings On the other hand, we live longer because we need more time to learn to love like that. Our personalities, mistakes, phobias and fears get in the way of that learning process, so it takes us longer to get it right. It comes naturally. and without resolution “.

Magic also exists when we surrender to accept that there are things that we cannot understand or explain in this life. Mary has experienced the supernatural more than once, and I think it’s largely because she’s open to it. Not only has she lived in a haunted house, but she has lost loved ones who have returned and contacted her. I don’t want to reveal too much, but one of my favorite passages in the book is when she was on her friend’s deathbed and warned her, “Hey, when you cross, don’t fuck with my kitchen. Cabinet doors, okay? “Not opening and closing my kitchen cabinet doors.” Well, you can guess what happened.

However, what I have appreciated most about this book is that Mary does not shy away from revealing her mistakes. She has done some that we might consider great, like marrying the wrong men and having a child when she was young and unmarried whom she gave up for adoption. It takes a lot of courage to make those things public in a book, but Mary does it because she knows that her experiences made her and she wants her readers to know that there is life after mistakes, and in the end, everything will work out for the future. best.

Regardless of the mistakes Mary may have made, she has her head on when it comes to what’s important in life. He talks repeatedly about the importance of spending time with his parents, friends, and family. She shares enduring stories of her relationships with her parents. The story of how he lost his brother is heartbreaking and yet beautifully written and reads like a Hollywood movie. Before her brother died, a beautiful healing moment occurred in her life, and that only happened because Maria was there to make sure it happened.

I don’t want to say too much more and spoil all the fun, laughter, and tears this book will bring you. I’m sure you’ve read a lot of books that didn’t fit as well as you wanted, but I think this book is like a comfortable, down-to-earth pair of shoes, nothing super fancy, but the ones that will last for the long haul. Try on your Life shoes. I promise you that you will not be disappointed and that your journey through life could be a little easier once you have let Mary travel with you. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if the next time you’re caught in a dilemma you find yourself thinking, “What would Mary do? What shoe would she wear in this situation?”