Thursday, June 9, 2022

Excerpt Tour: Compassion for Life by Philip W Mason

Compassion for Life

by Philip W Mason


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GENRE: Self-Help, Non-fiction   {as in (Body, Mind & Spirit / Inspiration & Personal Growth)}


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BLURB:


During life, everyone experiences difficult struggles and pain. The relief from this pain can come when either we recognize that we are only human and make an appropriate change for the better or when another person helps us recognize it and encourages us to make that change. These two phenomena are called self compassion and compassion and are great powers that people possess to make life better. They are the first steps to take towards a healing process that results in one being able to enjoy and share all the wondrous experiences that life has to offer.


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EXCERPTS (Exclusive Excerpt):



Lee was a little fuzzy, but he said he did. The man said his name was Casey and shook hands with Lee. Casey and I also shook hands. I introduced Casey to Mom in the back seat. Casey and Lee chatted for a couple of minutes and exchanged phone numbers. This was the fourth phone number Lee had stored in his phone. The other three were mine, his sister’s, and his pharmacy.


We next drove to the shoe store. In the parking lot, prior to entering the store, Mom gave Lee some money to pay for the boots. Mom told me later that she wanted to encourage Lee to feel a sense of pride from knowing that he could stand at the register, reach into his own pocket, like men do, and hand the clerk enough cash to cover the bill.


The three of us went into the store, and Lee picked out some boots. After the bill had been paid, we went back to the car. I sat down in the driver’s seat and closed the door. Immediately a very young woman knocked on my window. I opened the door. She quickly backed up, asked for a dollar, and then backed up even more with a look of fear and desperation on her face. I pulled out a twenty and handed it to her. At that point, she thanked me and said that her entire family had passed away. In the meantime, Lee had pulled out a dollar and offered it to her. She hesitantly took it and hugged him. Then she came back to me and gave me a big hug as I told her to take care of herself. She again quickly walked away and went to Lee and tried to give the dollar back to him. He refused and they pushed each other back and forth with the dollar in between them. She stuffed the dollar in his coat pocket and scurried away. We never asked her what her name was.


We all got back in the car, and Lee was very visibly shaken. He said that she needed the dollar far more than he did as a tear rolled down his face. He said he knew that young homeless women were completely vulnerable to anyone due to their complete lack of world experience, and that drug dealers often preyed on them. Mom and I sat with Lee in the car for well over five minutes as he collected himself. We then drove away, and Lee was silent for the next ten minutes. Everything had happened so quickly that I did not think of offering to take her to the Weaver homeless shelter. Thinking about this lapse of mine, later, I wondered how many people knew the name of their local homeless shelter and where it was located.


Mom and I gave Lee a ride back to his new home and drove away.




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AUTHOR Bio and Links:


I grew up on small family farm in rural Gorham, Maine in the 1970’s. Farm life instilled in me a strong sense of values, including resilience, responsibility, and the necessity of team-work. When I graduated high school, I attended Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Massachusetts, starting off in mechanical engineering before switching to physics, and graduating with a Bachelor of Science in 1991. From there, I went to Lehigh University in Pennsylvania, earning my masters and finally a PhD in physics in 1998 with my dissertation “An Optically Detected Magnetic Resonance Study of Point Defects in Wide Band-gap Semiconductors.” I have, over the course of my career, put those degrees to good use at various high-tech companies including a five year stint at the Bell Labs Division of Lucent Technologies.

And for many of the last fifteen years, I have suffered with serious mental health issues.
I have had numerous in-patient and out-patient treatment sessions and have learned about human frailty and gained a better understanding of the human condition. This has taught me to have more compassion for the world. I have also come to learn that my mental illness is not my fault, for there was nothing I could have done to prevent it. I have come to accept it, have received medical care for it, and am now going through the process of healing from it. It is a very emotional recovery at times, and I now have hope for a much brighter future.
I am now able to love who I am and want to share that sense of hope and love with the rest of the world.


Connect with Philip W Mason


WEBSITE https://philipwmason.com/ 


GOODREADS https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/53329158-compassion-for-life 


Buy Compassion for Life


AMAZON.COM https://amazon.com/dp/022882673X 


AMAZON.CA https://amazon.ca/dp/022882673X 


KINDLE https://amazon.com/dp/BLOCKED20200427


BOOK DEPOSITORY https://www.bookdepository.com/Compassion-for-Life-Philip-W-Mason/9780228826736


SMASHWORDS https://www.smashwords.com/books/notPublished/1018386 



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GIVEAWAY INFORMATION and RAFFLECOPTER CODE


Philip W Mason will be awarding a $15 Amazon or B/N GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour.


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