Things I Wish I Knew: Letters to My Little Sisters
by LaDonna Marie (Review)
A hybrid of devotional, prose and letter of love, LaDonna Marie’s Things I Wish I Knew is a heartfelt little book with a noble sense of duty and truthfulness. It is a short yet personal journey of finding faith, of synthesizing the sorrows and regrets that might lie in the past into a shining, promising future.
Marie writes these thoughts as letters to her sisters, but invites the reader in as figurative “sisters” as well. We are all siblings, after all, and everything that lives, we share a connection to in some way. We are all of value, she says, encouraging us to make the best of our lives and to resist being lured in by temptations which, at the time, seem harmless, but can destroy all we’ve worked hard to gain. Personal growth can come at painful costs, but it doesn’t have to if we’re cautious.
Between each piece, there are blank pages for the reader to sketch out their own thoughts and reflections. It is lovely and unique as a Christian devotional, but I think that even if you’re not personally Christian, the messages within are universal and positive – self-redemption, honesty and depth in relationships, seeking friends you can trust with the important things. From a distance, these might seem obvious to put at the forefront, along with your faith if you are religious, but it is disturbingly easy to lose sight of them at times. As Marie discusses, there can sometimes be a forest of lies, deception and distractions to be fought through before you can reach just one flower of truth.
I would give Things I Wish I Knew as a whole a four out of five stars. It is rather brief, but LaDonna Marie’s concise style and the genuine nature of her writing more than make up for it. I quite enjoyed it, and think that the author’s cause to build others up, and in such a non-judgmental and encouraging way, is a phenomenal one, especially in these challenging times. Even from the hardest tragedies, the deepest lows we might encounter, it is possible to glean some bit of fortune and maturity from.
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