Customer Reviews

Dying to Live: From Heart Transplant to Abundant Life

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Gaea Shaw's account of her heart disease, heart transplant and her new life is an inspiration to anyone whose life is spinning out of control. Gaea did all the right things: healthy diet, exercise--but her heart was giving out, and she was close to death. Her courageous descent into total surrender left me in tears. Shaw doesn't spare us any of the emotional turmoil she went through during this life-threatening experience, and yet this short book is written in a clear, simple, and unsentimental style. The way she told her story adds even more power to it. For myself, I know that if I were facing such a dire medical operation, at first I would be overwhelmed with fear and confusion. But Gaea's story elicited a deeper force within me (and all of us) which has the power to carry us through our darker hours, whether we are confronting day-to-day struggles or a life-and-death crisis.

This is an amazing story! I went to bed reading it and woke up and finished it...was late to work and don't regret it.

There are many overwhelming moments, but none like the donor mother feeling her son's heart beating inside of Gaea. What an important and beautiful story, I've never read the likes of it.

An amazing and beautifully written account of the path Gaea emabrked on in having a heart transplant. The impact on her renewed life and the ripple effect on those around her. Her account is clear and moving, equally so are the accounts of those who share her experience, especially the donor family. This book moved me greatly, a must read by anyone looking toward oragan transplant, and anyone considering donating.

Gaea's book is immensely moving, vulnerable, direct, beautifully written, very revealing of her and the intimate process she and her family went through with her heart transplant. It was incredibly raw and comprehensive in terms of their emotional experiences. Gaea's telling was not at all sentimental,
and it conveyed the spiritual presence that Gaea and her husband lived in while going through such an immense initiatory ordeal. The book also took me into the depths of the utter death of everything Gaea, her husband and her child had to face. I cried a lot...thanks so much, Gaea. This book offers an inspiring transmission of love and trust in the face of one of Life's fiercest experiences. It will be an inspiration and companion to those on the journey of transplant surgery, to their families, as well as those who are called to donate the precious organs of their fallen beloveds.
Gaea is also an inspiration for anyone who is facing any situation in life that appears to be more than they can handle.

This is a good book to give people an idea of what to expect from a heart transplant. I think it could have been written a little differently, but it helped me. My mom will be getting a transplant, so this helped to just give me a little bit of idea of how she will be.

Gaea Shaw has written an authentic, inspiring, book. I found myself emotionally reviewing my own life while reading the experience of hers. There is wisdom in this book...the kind that's earned when confronted with a major life challenge.
From a heart that was dying to a heart that is fully living, Gaea authentically shares herself and her family with the reader.

Dying to Live: From Heart Transplant to Abundant Life is a good reminder that while much of life is out of our control, we can choose how we respond! I am buying 10 copies and offering them as gifs to my circle of girlfriends.

Paulette Millander