Find Yourself by Helping Others--Life Lessons from an Extraordinary Story of Sacrifice and Survival
In the winter of 1939, five-year-old Andrew Bienkowski was exiled to Siberia with his family. The two years of struggle that followed--especially his grandfather's amazing act of sacrifice during their first long, cold winter--have informed the rest of Andrew's life. Thanks to his devoted mother, his quick-witted grandmother, and the unexpected kindness of strangers, Andrew established an approach to life that emphasizes helping others as the essential path to finding our greatest human fulfillment.

In Dr. Gordon Livingston's follow-up to his national bestseller Too Soon Old, Too Late Smart , he offers thirty more true things we need to know now. Among the fresh truths he identifies and explores in this book, which has sold more than 50,000 copies in hardcover, are: Paradox governs our lives. Forgiveness is a gift we give ourselves. Marriage ruins a lot of good relationships. We are defined by what we fear. We all live downstream. One of life's most difficult tasks is to see ourselves as others see us. As we grow old, the beauty steals inward. Most people die with their music still inside of them. Dr. Livingston's sterling qualities are in evidence again: a clear and deep understanding of the hidden hypocrisies, desires, evasions, and emotional tumult that course through our lives an unerring sense of what is important and his own ability to persevere,to hope,in a world he knows is capable of inflicting unjustifiable and lifelong suffering.

After service in Vietnam, as a surgeon for the 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment in 1968-69, at the height of the war, Dr. Gordon Livingston returned to the U.S. and began work as a psychiatrist. In that capacity, he has listened to people talk about their lives-what works, what doesn't, and the limitless ways (many of them self-inflicted) that people find to be unhappy. He is also a parent twice bereaved in one thirteen-month period, he lost his eldest son to suicide, his youngest to leukemia. Out of a lifetime of experience, Gordon Livingston has extracted thirty bedrock truths: We are what we do. Any relationship is under the control of the person who cares the least. The perfect is the enemy of the good. Only bad things happen quickly. Forgiveness is a form of letting go, but they are not the same thing. The statute of limitations has expired on most of our childhood traumas. Livingston illuminates these and twenty-four others in a series of carefully hewn, perfectly calibrated essays, many of which focus on our closest relationships and the things that we do to impede or, less frequently, enhance them. Again and again, these essays underscore that we are what we do," and that while there may be no escaping who we are, we have the capacity to face loss, misfortune, and regret and to move beyond them-that it is not too late. Full of things we may know but have not articulated to ourselves, Too Soon Old, Too Late Smart offers solace, guidance, and hope to everyone ready to become the person they'd most like to be.

Dr. Gordon Livingston--a physician of the human heart, a philosopher of human psychology--offers an urgently needed meditation on who best (and who best "not") to love. As in his previous books, Dr. Livingston demonstrates an unerring sense of what is important, providing readers with a much-needed alternative to the trial-and-error learning that makes wisdom such an expensive commodity.

Dr Gordon Livingston has been a psychiatrist since the 1960s, and has heard from his patients the whole spectrum of those things in life that work and that don't work - and the limitless ways in which we are capable of inflicting unhappiness on ourselves. Out of this lifetime of experience he has extracted thirty bedrock truths, amongst them 'We are what we do', 'Only bad things happen quickly', 'We are afraid of the wrong things' and 'Be bold, and mighty forces will come to your aid'. Gordon believes that we all have a wonderful capacity to face loss, misfortune and regret, and that it is never too late to move beyond them and find greater happiness. This profound and incisive book of collected wisdoms and deceptively simple truths will encourage and inspire you to seek and recognise the best in your life - to realise that it is never too late to find your greatest happiness, and how to go about it.

The loss of a child is every parent's most unspeakable fear. Gordon Livingston survived that tragedy not once but twice in a 13-month period, losing one son to suicide and another to leukemia. Only Spring, based on the journal he began keeping when the family received six-year-old Lucas's diagnosis, traces the excruciating ordeal of witnessing his child's courageous battle and the agonizing cycle of faith lost and hope regained. As a memorial, Only Spring will introduce you to a remarkable child whose legacy of hope and love can enrich each of us. As a portrait of survival, it will infuse us with the strength and faith to confront the most profound challenges in our lives.

What are we afraid of and what can we do about it?

Fear--of change, of intimacy, of loss, of the unknown--has become a corrosive influence in modern life, eroding our ability to think clearly. Exploited for power by politicians and for money by the media, it has become embedded in the way we think about our lives. Overcoming our fear, says Gordon Livingston, constitutes the most difficult struggle we face.

Dr. Livingston, a psychiatrist, has increasingly found himself prescribing virtues like courage to his patients instead of tranquilizers or antidepressants. Now he tells us all what we need to do to develop personal virtues in the face of societal fear--and our own individual fears. And he does this with the crystalline prose and leavening wit that have made him an internationally bestselling author.

As the celebrated novelist Mark Helprin has said of Dr. Livingston: "To read him is to trust him and to learn, for his life has been touched by fire, and his motives are absolutely pure."

Suicidal Thoughts is a compilation of some of the most moving and insightful writing accomplished on the topic of suicide. It presents the thoughts and experiences of fifteen writers who have contemplated suicide-some on a professional level, others on a personal level, and a few, both personally and professionally. Through this collection, the reader is able to bear witness to the struggle between life and death and to the devastating aftermath of suicide. Suicidal Thoughts provides readers with a better understanding of the reasons why some individuals give serious consideration to killing themselves.

Fear - of change, of intimacy, of loss, of the unknown - has become a corrosive influence in modern life, eroding our ability to think clearly. Exploited for power by politicians and for money by the media, it has become embedded in the way we think about our lives. Overcoming our fear, says Gordon Livingston, constitutes the most difficult struggle we face. Psychiatrist Livingston has increasingly found himself prescribing virtues like courage to his patients instead of tranquilizers or antidepressants. Now he tells us all what we need to do to develop personal virtues in the face of societal fear, and our own individual fears.