Episode 37: Author Marvin Faulkner | Love, Grief & Hope During the Holidays

  

On this week’s dose of book recommendations, library love, and literary enthusiasm, our guest is local author Dr. Marvin Faulkner. This episode's format is like a mini-book tour event. I get to interview him about his memoir Letter to God and then he shares an excerpt of his book with us! We talk about grief, love and hope during the holidays. 

**An important note to my sensitive listeners: We do address some tougher topics on this episode, and this may be triggering to some. If you’re not in a good place to hear about losing a spouse to cancer throughout the episode, or the brief mention of suicide or drug/alcohol abuse, then I would advise you to skip this episode for now. Take care of yourself! 

Purchase Marvin's book from Green Door Bookstore or Amazon. 

Visit Marvin on instagram @marvin.faulkner, on Facebook, or at his website. 

Visit the Library Laura Podcast at @library.laura, our Facebook page, and the bookshop.org shop.

Today's guest on The Library Laura Podcast, local author Marvin Faulkner

Two important and exciting announcements: 

GIVEAWAY! 

I'll be giving away a copy of Marvin's book, Letter to God, on Instagram between now and Sunday, December 20th (And yes, I know I said the 19th on the audio recording during the podcast. Numbers are hard and 2020 is almost over doggone it! It's really running through Sunday, December 20th!) Come on over to @library.laura to enter! 

CHRISTMAS BREAK! 

I feel like a school kid getting out of school for Christmas. Yes, the Library Laura Podcast will be taking a little Christmas break between now and the end of the year. We'll be back in January with even more bookish content and library love! Until then, wishing you a very merry Christmas and a happy New Year!

Marvin Faulkner's book, Letter to God 

I got the privilege of connecting with Marvin through the great folks over at The Green Door Bookstore in Overland Park. The owner Christin was a guest on Episode 28 and after that lovely episode, Jennifer at the bookstore got in touch with me about Marvin and would I be interested in reading his book and having him on the episode! 

Marvin's book, Letter to God is his self-published memoir. He felt like he needed to share his own journey, which is one full of great pain and hardship, but also of great love. This is particularly fascinating to me because Dr. Faulkner practices pain management locally. His own experiences have allowed him to have great empathy toward his patients, which came through very clearly in the episode today. 

Dr. Faulkner got to do a few book events in Kansas City before the pandemic shut those type of events down. So today's episode is more the format of a book event, where I asked him a few questions, and then he read a chapter from his book out loud. Marvin talks to us a little about his own journey and his process of writing the memoir. 

Marvin encouraged listeners to go out and find someone to whom to show love today. That's his biggest advice to those enduring grief this holiday season -- to look at the void where love used to be and fill it up again wherever you can. Reaching out and showing love to others helps us feel loved ourselves. 

1 John 4:7-12  tells us that the source of love is God: 

Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him.This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.

And Matthew 1:23 tells us that this season which we celebrate, the birth of Jesus, means that God is now with us.

“The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” (which means “God with us”).

Laura with Dr. Faulkner's book, Letter to God

Even if there are people we don't get to be with this season, whether it's because of the pandemic or because they've passed away, let's remember that God is with us, Love is with us, and that just because this is how it feels now that doesn't mean it will always feel this way. I'm so grateful for this, and I hope your season is filled with Light and Love. May God be present with you in your joys and your sorrows.

Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, and lots of literary love from my library to yours! 

~ Library Laura