Crazy Quilt: Author’s Postscript and Book Club Questions
Postscript to Crazy Quilt Pieces of a Mennonite Life
Some readers have asked me: how did you get out of your depression? I don’t give a clear path in my book, mainly because I found that mental health is a journey. My tendency to be anxious was not fully resolved on that Hill in Pennsylvania. The fear and heaviness that I carried lifted, but a low-level anxiety remained.
But that anxiety led me to seek deeper truths. It also led me to have baking days with my mom. I called them “tutorials,” though I learned how to make her shoo-fly pie numerous times!
The ongoing stress of life compelled me to seek out meditation groups and learn body-based stress reduction tools like breath work, yoga, mindfulness and guided visualization. I began using some of these tools to help others, and those explorations contributed to my becoming a coach.
Life is continually giving us material to work with! Or play with. Or throw against the wall, as the case may be. But whether you are a writer or not, it’s always a helpful to see the stuff of life as material to learn from.
Book Club Discussion Questions for Crazy Quilt: Pieces of a Mennonite Life
- For the person or persons who chose this book for discussion, what made you suggest it to the group?
- What themes in this book do you connect to? Some themes addressed are a search for identity, love and marriage, family heritage, personal healing, and grappling with religion.
- If you could ask the author one question, what would it be?
- Is there a particular story that impacted you? If so, share what stood out to you and why.
- What do you think prompted the author to share the more difficult aspects of her personal story? Do you think she went too far? Not far enough?
- How is this book similar to other memoirs you have read? What sets it apart?
- Would you read other works by this author? Would you recommend Crazy Quilt to a friend? Why or why not?
- If you have read Cynthia’s novel, Mennonite on the Edge: An Unlikely Romance, what are the common themes that book and Crazy Quilt share?
- Why do you think the author chose to explore some of the same themes in fiction?