Title: ALL
STORMS PASS: The Anti-Meditations
Author:
Luke
Benoit
Date published: 2012 by CreateSpace
Date published: 2012 by CreateSpace
ISBN-10:
0615520138
ISBN-13: 978-0615520131
ISBN-13: 978-0615520131
Author’s Web Site: All Storms Pass
Available on Amazon: Amazon:
All Storms Pass
SUMMARY: Author and Life Coach Luke Benoit knows from personal experience what it feels like to
rise up from the ashes like the mythical Phoenix, and lives to help others do
the same. His book has helped me in my own dark times.
all storms pass
and happiness
will always be a decision
even when I feel like I can’t make it.
I can learn to
stay out of my own way
no matter what has happened to me
or where I’ve come from
or what I’ve done or not done
in the past.
and I can let
the good inside me
take and carry me
and let that shape be
revealed
to me
- All Storms Pass: The
Anti-Meditations by Luke Benoit
“You’re not going to get this book if you’re stupid,” said
author and Life Coach Luke Benoit during a chat about his new book All Storms
Pass: The Anti-Meditations. “You’re just not.”
I would love that on a t-shirt. Hope they come out soon.
Taken out of context, this statement may sound a tad
arrogant, but what author hasn’t thought that about their book and kept it
private? In context, Benoit was saying different people will get different
things out of his book and some may never get it. The way he said it is typical
of his straight-from-the-heart / take-it-or-leave-it style that forms the spine
of All Storms Pass which opens with this “Statement of Self-Esteem”:
“If anyone ever
told you that you were less than wonderful…they lied.”
Okay, so what about Hitler? Shouldn’t he have listened to
people who said he was less than wonderful? But this proves Benoit’s point. The
stout-hearted narcissistic sociopaths (aka “stupids”) of this world will never
seek wisdom, humility and healthy self-esteem. You won’t find them searching
their souls in a 12-Step or hiring therapists or “life coaches.”
Benoit has alchemized tried-and-true “recovery” maxims, pop
culture sayings and lyrics, and a dollop of his own raw honesty to create a
series of healing “poems” that move the reader and stimulate contemplation. On
the back cover, he acknowledges the book's similarities with classic meditation
books such as Melody Beattie’s The Language of Letting Go, but advises his
meditations are “very different.”
All Storms Pass has only been out a few weeks, and is
already gaining popularity as it garners great reviews, including one
Midwesterner who admitted Fear of Californian Superficiality before actually
reading it and finding resonance.
I also reviewed the book favorably, so it was a
pleasure to be able to pick Luke Benoit’s brain about the book’s process and
publication. Before we launch into the interview, Benoit expresses happy
exhaustion: “It’s like having a baby!”
Q: Are you from
the West Coast originally?
A: I was
born in Providence, Rhode Island. Prep School educated. Escaped at 18 to be as
far away from every part of my life as possible. I came to Los Angeles to go to
USC Film School and study screenwriting. But as the B-52's said, "Remember,
wherever you go there you are..."
Q: Where do you
live now?
A: Orange
County, California.
Q: Tell me
about the Anti-Meditations.
A: They
are called the Anti-Meditations because they are very different from
meditations that you would read in traditional meditation books. A lot of them are dark or challenging,
and some of them are like poems.
But they're never simple and they don't necessarily give you a simple
answer or tool for a "one day at a time" solution. Because sometimes I think life just
isn't like that.
Q: How did you
come to write this book?
A:
Well, All Storms Pass is
me. It just came out of me. It has my personality.
I had a lot of different trainings in Recovery and the
12-Step Program, and in mental health and personal therapy and reading and
reading and lots and lots of work on myself. I suppose it sounds big-headed but
it just truly a reflection of who I am.
