Steele Fitchett

Steele Fitchett describes his vision for The Narrow Way of Loving Ourselves: "This book is designed for anyone who has a longing to be themselves but has no idea of how to go about it. Being ourselves requires being real about how we feel about what's going on in our lives. It also reveals how our past impacts on our current attitudes and behaviour. The book is valuable for those who have reached a place where nothing seems to work and there seems to be no way out of the mess we find ourselves in. It provides no quick fix--there is none. It also presents God as the source of the unconditional love and acceptance we all long for. The journey of being real requires us to discover that our Creator is more committed to our heart than we are. He longs to teach us how to love ourselves and then our neighbour. He desires us to be able to love our enemy. Love him, but struggle with what he does. What we do is not what we are. You will find this journey confronting. I did."

Where's your mother? Not well today. Said carefully and neutrally, as if pretending things were normal would make them so. Transform life into a manageable thing. As if ten year olds everywhere were the ladies of the house, the caretakers of the family. I see. Mrs Blakehurst, their babysitter from up the road was on the stoop. She had brought the youngest two. Kate knew it was important to use her grown up voice, through a narrow slit in the door. Thank you, Mrs Blakehurst. Here is your pay. Father didn't change the rhythm, so that helped make it normal. Though deep inside a much younger Kate screamed that it was not. But Emily, Daniel and Sara's voices were louder. Some inner sense stopped Kate from calling them 'the children' as was her mother's custom. She was even particular that she called them in order of their age, oldest to youngest, as if by this precision she could push back the chaos that hovered like a patient bird of prey. Brooks explores the internal dilemma of a child compelled to become parent to a mentally unstable mother, as well as the guardian of her three younger siblings. With fearless candour, Linda peels back the layers of a child with adult responsibilities. What becomes of Kate when the years fall by and she reaches adulthood? Can the child within be denied voice?