APTOS, Calif., May 28, 2008 (PRIME NEWSWIRE) -- It was just a routine checkup, but as he watched the doctor press the stethoscope to his heart for the third time, he knew something was terribly wrong. "You will die in a few years unless a surgeon repairs the inner workings of your heart." Mortally afraid, the author spent weeks in an obsessive search for answers that didn't exist. Then one morning a voice in a dream said: "You could die on the operating table. Use this time wisely."
So with the Beowulf myth as inspiration, he changed tactics. Modern medicine would repair the pump -- he would prepare his emotional and spiritual heart. To combat his anxiety, the author dove, like Beowulf, into the fearful swamp, first to find the exact nature of each fear, then to understand and conquer them. The weapons used came from a lifetime of experience: the loss of one of his small children to cancer, a vision quest, ancient tools of the shaman, and myths enshrined in both Christian and pagan lore. Soon others in crisis began to contact him for help and to encourage him to share with a wider audience. The result is this book.
"Congratulations on this wonderful job. My emotions were entirely engaged and I couldn't put it down. Doctors are just beginning to explore the role of a patient's spiritual life in surviving major surgery. Beowulf's Apprentice can become part of this ongoing conversation in our culture." Vito Victor -- writer
"I admire Tom Snell's courage, honesty, vulnerability, and resourcefulness. He has truly transformed the experience of a medical crisis into an opportunity for living more deeply and authentically. In Beowulf's Apprentice, he writes: 'Would this experience work me, like the smithy works the iron at the hot forge, moving me further into my humanity?' That is, perhaps, the most essential question to ask ourselves in facing any painful or frightening life event. And the answer in Tom's case is a resounding yes!" Ellen Bass -- Poet and Author
About the Author
Son of a Nobel Laureate, the author grew up in a small town on the coast of Maine. In college he became a Quaker, then taught high school while raising a family with his first wife. Now a retired computer specialist, student of shamanism, and proud grandparent, the author lives in Northern California where this story takes place.
Beowulf's Apprentice * by Tom Snell
A Cardiac Patient's Spiritual Memoir
Publication Date: February 8, 2008
Trade Paperback; $19.99; 191 pages; 978-1-4363-0672-0
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