Waking Part 2

I think that the best part of Waking for me was the appreciation I got of not only Yoga but my own self.  My body, my abilities, my strengths and the hardships that I have persevered through.  Michael was strong enough to fight his illness and seek a deeper and greater awareness of his body than most of us with functioning bodies posses and that is an incredible feat in itself.  Similarly, my goal for myself is that I find a true happiness and understanding of my life without holding any resentments towards the mistakes I made in the past.  What's done, is done, now I must move forward without looking back, no guilt, no harm done, no regrets.  I think this is a similar approach that Michael took in his "true" recovery and what enabled him to get to the stage in his life where he is today.
When Michael talked about the initial troubles he had with yoga, it made my daily complaining about downward facing dog sound ridiculous.  In order to further pursue yoga, he had to undergo a major surgery and build up strength in areas that i probably don't even know exist in my body.  Yet he was willing to make that sacrifice, take a step into the unknown, for a challenge and risk which hew as completely clueless to.  That takes much more strength than signing up for a BIC capstone class and performing yoga twice a week.  I won't lie, when I signed up for this class I signed up for a course, not a major lifestyle change, not a critique of my own life or a way to improve my life.  Yet that is exactly what I got in return and the more I go to class, the more I realize that this is no ordinary Baylor course.  It moves you, it changes altruistic you and molds you into your truer you.  I guess that's why when Michael was faced with that difficult decision to venture into the unknown and undergo a major surgery, he had no hesitations and went forward with it without any mental reservations.
I was still curious at the end of the book to learn more about his relationships with his wife, with his mother now, and his brother.  I wanted to know a little bit about their recovery process and whetehr or not they were able to heal in a way that was similar to Michael.  More than anything I wanted to know more about Michael's relationship with his children and how he deals with day to day parenting issues like broccoli and spinach for dinner or night terrors.  In a sense I feel like listening to his parenting troubles and how he overcomes them everyday would help me to overcome my own frustrations as a mom.  Who knows, maybe it would guilt me into being more towards my son (not that I'm not already).... I won't deny the fact that at times I feel like I take him for granted and its only at moments when he's not with me (either at school or with his father on the weekends) that I truly begin to appreciate him and miss him.  I appreciate his innocence and kindness, his trust in me and his laugh.  Some things only a mother can understand and maybe that's why I want to know more about Michael's mother, her recovery and her recuperation.  I know that when he wrote his mother was pushing for him to survive, to stick in there that it was equally for her as it was for him.
Overall, I wouldn't change this book at all, if anything I would have a follow up book, something to keep the readers posted on his life, almost like a blog.  I feel like once I read his book, in a sense I became a part of Michael's family and grew a true concern for him.  I think that as an author, that is a pretty remarkable achievement.