Nancy Kaiser shares about letting go

In her recent book, Boone native Nancy Kaiser shares what it took for her to release and be released from the turmoil that surrounded her life.

Kaiser began journaling her thoughts following separation and divorce from her husband and the loss of a dream, building their mountain home to retire in.

Her book, "Letting Go: An Ordinary Woman's Extraordinary Journey of Healing and Transformation," was published in June of 2008 by Virtual Impressions Publishing in Asheville.

"I went through a grieving process, and I was just trying to survive the pain and grief," she said.

With 27 years experience in management of an equine veterinarian office, Kaiser had discovered her unique gift of communicating with animals and thought this would be the topic of her latest book.

"While 'Letting Go' is not the book I anticipated writing, it was what needed to be written," Kaiser said in a recent blog.

Nearly 600 miles from home, Kaiser was surrounded by her animal family consisting of dogs, cats and a horse that became her support system as she learned the way to help herself and others through releasing the emotions of anger, fear, grief and many others as she wrote her book.

"I just sat down at the computer and started writing everything from the heart. I was writing more as an observer and the lessons I needed to learn and never saw them in the moment," Kaiser said.

A year following the divorce, her husband remarried and she said the hurt changed into anger. The time she was devoting to her journaling at the computer was very different than her active life in the outdoors, she said.

"After sending sections to friends they encouraged me to write a book that others could benefit from," Kaiser added.

Pam Berardi in New Jersey was one of those encouragers.

"Nancy has a way of putting what she went through down on paper, so it's interesting," Berardi said.

"This is a very empowering book for women, especially. I haven't gone through a divorce, but it doesn't matter what your issues are, but it is how you're handling it," Berardi said.

"It was the everyday, ordinary things that were very significant to me. One of the very simple things that helped me understand how far I've come in healing happened one day while getting towels out of the closet. I saw our monogram and I thought it doesn't matter anymore," Kaiser said.

"Six months before I would have taken the scissors and cut them to shreds. It was simple yet profound for me."

Berardi said, "Feelings are often exaggerated and when things are pointed out to you such as Nancy did in the book you realize someone else went through this and it gives you hope."

Understanding what others are going through during transitions such as hers, Kaiser said, "Any little thing when everything is falling down around you can put you over the edge."

What that monogram was for 27 years was gone. The relationship that it represents is dead, she added. Through time she noticed a chuckle from deep inside her anger and refers to that in the book as the shift.

"It doesn't happen quickly or on its own, but you begin letting go in layers. This had been the most devastating event in my life," she said.

One day as a swallow tail butterfly landed in her hand it was just as she had envisioned and it became the cover of the book.

"There were different things for me that I was releasing such as the death of both of my parents, the farm I lived on for 27 years, and a spouse I didn't intend to let go," Kaiser said.

These items are listed as fading layers of her life that she let go of on the cover of the book.

Also mentioned are her two Labs, Licorice and Shadow, who she lost in 2005. The view also is from the property she thought she would be living on.

"It was all very significant," Kaiser said.

"This book is for anybody who is trying to figure out life's traumas and challenges, and they're not getting it. I learned about life and how to survive life. I didn't think I would ever be happy, but I am very happy and content now," she said.

"I learned things about Nancy that I didn't know and how she was able to come through them is really empowering," Berardi said.

Her book is available at www.nancykaiseranimalcommunicator.com; Black Bear Books in Boone; Amazon and Barnes and Noble.

It also is available in eBook for Kindle at Smashword.com.