Reviews
In writing her latest book, When the Horses Dies,
Get Off… and Stop Dragging It Around, Louise LeBrun meant business. No beating around the bushes with politically correct analyses, self-help psychobabble or New Age feel good affirmations. In her 3rd book, Louise plays for keeps! The tone is authentic, the language punchy, the concepts transformational. When you read this book, you will not be able to go back to what you were before; you will not be able to erase the insights. LeBrun's words are meant to awaken the quantum biological human in each of us, create the space for movement, new energy, and new beliefs. "Search
inside YOU for the cues and clues…It is in that much deeper, hidden place that you'll find more of who you are {…} with your attention {…}
at the base of your spine, where I believe Spirit touches tissue."
"We've lost our ability to trust that we see what we see,
we hear what we hear and we know what we know. We look to others to tell us,
to talk us into or out of things, rather than trust our own truth about our experience.
We don't seem to know when to stop, let go and walk away." With these words, Louise start us off on a journey that will help us discover our own truth, rather than try to fix ourselves with a ten step program. With sassiness and compassion for our humanity, she invites us to stop, let go and walk away from our dead horses: the horse of Relationships that build resentment, which in times eats us alive; the horse of Parenting in a world that "cannibalizes" its young instead of helping them become more than their parents; the horses of Religion and Dogma where the saddle is shame; the horse of School, the great homogenizer; the horse of Work where we work out our unresolved family issues; the horse of Medicine led by burned-out doctors who medicate us so we can no longer feel or think.
As a parent of a beautifully challenging teenager, and a member of a family where
every other individual is a doctor, I was particularly moved by Chapter
4: Parenting, the Other Gift that Keeps on Giving and Chapter 8: Doctors,
Drugs, Dis-ease and Death. If you choose to read this book as a process for self-discovery,
there may be other chapters that jump off the page at you and give you pangs
in your body and pause enough to begin to change the physiology of your beliefs.
In mindfully reading the book, I chose to listen to Louise's call to wake up
to our potential, to trust our experience, to trust the signals from our body,
our own god that will never lie to us. "We
are massive bio-processors; intelligent, living, organic systems that have a
capability for sensing and processing information at phenomenal speeds that defy
logic and rational thinking… not the small, puny mechanical devises that Newtonian
science has taught us to believe." She reminds us that we are the competent
rider who can become fully alive if we learn to breathe, follow the impulses
and let ourselves know the truth.
"Never, EVER, under any circumstances, let anyone or anything come between
you and your ‘god'. Your ‘god' is inside you, not outside you in anyone else's
ideas or words or thoughts. ‘God' speaks to you through the mechanism of
the body, not through the process of the intellect. ‘God' is an experience,
not a philosophy. The only place you can ‘experience'
anything is in your body. How much more personal can it get?"
Key concepts for transformation -- to name a few -- include denominalizing our experiences; staying at cause in our lives rather that at effect; paying attention to our mindless and repetitive patterns; changing our conversations with our self so we can change the conversation with others; and never underestimate the power of what moves inside us.
Louise also walks us through the basic tenets of her WEL-Systems perspective developed over the last 15 years or what she calls a way of considering the world that invites rapid, profound and generative change. The WEL-Systems perspective includes a quantum context for movement, a CODE model for enquiry, and finally Quantum TLC, for the experience of change itself. These concepts are further explained in Louise's other books Fully
Alive from 9 to 5 and Phoenix Rising: The Freeing
of Human Potential.
At the end of the book, Louise LeBrun leaves us with a few choice words of wisdom on how to get to where we want to go. First, she tells us, select a destination drawing from internal references that are unique to each of us, second, know where we are, take stock, since it may have been a long time since we last looked, third, notice the gap between the life we are living and the one that really calls to us, and finally, decide it's time and be willing and able to move.
What a ride!
Dominique Dennery
Ottawa, Ontario
Thank you for the opportunity to review your draft chapters. Powerful
stuff!
As general comment, I find that with each book you write, there is
greater clarity in your own thinking and the manner in which you articulate
those thoughts.
The book will, guaranteed, invoke strong responses or emotions. Such
was my case, particularly around the issues of parenting and school.
This is itself a wonderful opportunity for reader growth to occur.
I had very strong response to the Parenting chapter and an even more
intense response to the chapter on school, so much so that I felt a
knot in my stomach. Though I have always known it, I cannot "stomach"
the thought of children being abused in anyway including a total lack
of acknowledgment of a fellow human being who just happens to be a "little
human being". I believe that children are sacred, they are, after
all, the future of humanity and something more, and not to acknowledge
them as such is, well, sinful. Whew! Having children of my own I have
also come to realize how challenging it is not to fall into the old
"school" of thought on parenting. It is predetermined and
formula-like in its approach and oh sooo seductive when the pressure
is on. <grin>, But, I continually find it more and more unacceptable
as time goes on.
Ian S., Ottawa, Ontario
Not only did I read the (Parenting) Chapter, but I passed it on to
two mothers when I was in (South America). One of them is a art educator
and painter who works a lot with children and is a wonderful mother.
She loved it! The other, I spent a lot of time with, subversively transmitting
elements of the chapter, until I felt she was ready to get the 2 by
4. I hear now that she has made some drastic positive changes to the
way she interacts with her son, whom she resented tremendously and treated
accordingly. So you have even reached into the deep recesses of (South
America). I thank you for the gift of your book and am ejoying my son,
who also has a copy of the famous chapter...
Dominique , Ottawa, Ont.
Well the first good sign is that I read it all in one shot as soon
as I opened it. Very Good! I felt and could grasp the hits to the questions
and suggestions you made throughout the writing. Great stuff! I hope
you include me in other readings as the chapters unfold...
Ray L., Sturgeon Falls, Ontario
I quickly opened with much anticipation your email attachment of the
first two chapters.
Wonderful reading!
Allister H, Ottawa, Ontario
I love it! ...can hardly wait for the next chapters... I work with
people who are "stuck" dragging their dead horses and know
exactly what you mean( am guilty of doing the same, dragging around
mine and others , if you know what I mean)..People who know what needs
to be done , have the best intentions, but are held back because of
family, relationships, fear of making a mistake,fear of rejection etc...
We are all trying to do the "right thing".
Susan R. , Massey, Ontario
Read the Relationship chapter and really liked it! Laughed a lot as
I read it ...and really liked your comments about the "soap operas"
...can really see ourselves in our (not so much nowadays) conversations
about others who we were annoyed with - for one reason or another. We're
both coming around to realizing that it's much more fun and productive
to talk about ourselves and how we're "relating" and where
we're going then it is to fuss and whine about others and what they're
doing or not doing! I must say it is seductive however!
Cathy C., Halifax, NS
Ah, Louise…what a powerful chapter, filled with fabulous imagery and
numerous truths!!! This is a tale that must be told over and over again,
until the people of the world "wake up" to its significance
and vital importance. And, you, Love Filled Lady, possess the knowledge,
wisdom, and research to back up every one of your potent words. "cannibalizing
our young…and, spiting out their souls"… WOW ...I love these expressions!!!
And you know what Louise… I am the child, the parent, and the teacher
described in each paragraph. I am a whirling storm of conflicting inner
knowings and outer expression. But, as I have examined my cultural conditioned
paradigms, and began to align them with truths I knew as a child, I
have become more courageous.
Chris M., Halifax, NS
I want to thank you as well for sharing your work on parenting with
me, because I have remained peeved enough by it that the other evening
I was inspired to write 8 or 10 pages without stopping... !
Angie C., Fairfax, Virginia
Your chapter on Parenting was very interesting. I was expecting a more
typical parenting essay -- one that focues on the relationship of the
parent to the child. While you do address this, by my reading it is
more about the relationship of the parent to his or herself.
I like the chapter. I like its structure, how it unfolds the information
and how the italics headings in that latter part focuses in on what's
key. I don't know if you were looking for a personal journey through
it, which is what you got, but there you go.
Janice W., Toronto, Ont.
"...we cannibalize our young"
I was in a workshop, where the leader told a story of his friend, a
Hawaiian Viet Nam Vet, who said what we do to our children, his ancestors
would have called 'human sacrifice'
Thank-you for sending the chapter to me, just reading it, is re-membering
of the work.
I find myself humming that song ...I ride to the desert on a horse
with no name...
when we name (the horse with no name) ...it becomes the dead horse,
and try as we might to drag it out of the desert with us, when we
finally let go, we can look back and see the sun glinting off of the
freshly picked bones.
Gives me a whole new way of looking at the 12 buzzards who soar overhead
each day!
(12 buzzards ...accelerated naming of a herd of horses) Guess that about
sums up my life, and it is grand!
Gloria C, Toronto, On.
Please send your reviews, comments or feedback to:
WHD@WEL-Systems.com
