If you are brave enough to step into an experience that will forever change the way you encounter yourself, then step into Belonging by Toko-Pa Turner. Unlike any other book where you anticipate the finale to piece everything together, Belonging is like an extraordinary tasting of incredible wisdom that you wish would go on and on.
“It is a great paradox that when we let ourselves be undefended we find our true strength,” — a quote from Belonging, is as profound a statement as the book itself.
Toko-pa invites you to bare your soul, strip away your defenses and expose that most secretly guarded, well-fortified part of yourself that even you may not have known existed. And she does this by bravely forging the way forward — with courage, innocence and deep wisdom. She gifts you her wisdom not by a forced teaching but rather with an effortless and deeply generous sharing of her own incredible journey. She explores the origins of estrangement, the crippling effect of a poisonous familial relationship and the ways in which we cloak ourselves and invite pain into our lives. She dares you to explore your innermost relationship between you and your secret self, to question the true definition of belonging and why we choose to exile ourselves away from places that resonate with our soul. She swings you between the ecstasy of discovering a “known-unknown” truth to a terrifying abyss where you’re forced to face your hidden monsters.
Belonging by Toko-Pa Turner Her Own Room Press, (Salt Spring Island, British Columbia) pp. 245, Rs 1,162 On Kindle Rs 449
This is not a book that you can read in one sitting. It may take you days, even months to skim through it because every word, every sentence carries multiple layers, and the re-reading of it only exposes more and more of our own secrets.
“We risk becoming isolated and dead inside when we detach ourselves from the things we love, the things that can break our hearts. Because when we armour ourselves from pain, we also seal off aliveness in other areas of our life.” (A quote from Belonging).
For a book that’s relatively new in the market, and definitely not designed to please the masses, it has already won wide acclaim. Winner of the 2017 Nautilus Gold Award, the book has received exclusive five star reviews on Amazon. Contemporary experts in the field of healing and spirituality have written about the book with much praise.
“Belonging is truly a masterpiece that will touch your heart deeply and speak to those neglected spaces that have been so carefully protected and hidden away. It will make you weep and rejoice in remembrance,” is what Craig Paterson, a recording artist, Path of the Light Warrior, had to say.
And yet, it must be said, that this book is not for the faint-hearted. Be certain that this book will forever change the way you view the world, and yourself.
The writer, Toko-pa Turner is a Canadian writer, teacher, and dream-worker who blends the mystical tradition of Sufism with a Jungian approach to dreams, and her book resonates with this wisdom. Toko-pa lives on a small island in the Salish Sea of British Columbia.
— The writer is a Bach Flower therapist and healer
