Mary Potter Kenyon

Rediscover that creative spark deep inside and let author Mary Potter Kenyon show you how to really ignite your creative spirit!

A Guide to Reigniting Your Creativity

Called to Be Creative

Mary Potter Potter

"We do not write in order to be understood; we write in order to understand." -C. Day-LewisWriting is one of the oldest and most effective means of self-exploration, self-expression, and self-discovery. In this new guided journal, Mary Potter Kenyon offers readers an opportunity to reflect on the meaning and significance of loss and allows the griever to sort through all the conflicting emotions that arise after a death. By interweaving her own experiences of loss, the proven research behind writing as a method for healing, and blank pages with carefully chosen quotes, Kenyon gives readers space to express the feelings that are sometimes too painful to speak aloud.

Writing Your Way Through Grief

Comfort Zone

When Mary Potter Kenyon’s husband David was diagnosed with cancer in the summer of 2006 she searched libraries and bookstores for books on cancer and the caregiving experience. What she discovered was a plethora of technical and medically-oriented books or those written by a caregiver whose loved one had died, a scenario she refused to contemplate. While serving as David’s companion during Wednesday chemotherapy treatments, Mary began journaling about their experience as a couple and parents of young children as they navigated the labyrinth of cancer. It soon dawned on her that she was writing the very book she had searched for upon David’s diagnosis: one that goes beyond the cancer experience to give hope and inspiration to the reader. Chemo-Therapist: How Cancer Cured a Marriage is a moving testimonial of a relationship renewed by the shared experience of a life threatening illness." Initially, after David’s diagnosis, I would cringe when I read books or articles by cancer survivors who stated that cancer had been a gift in their lives. How could all that David endured be viewed as a gift? The invasive surgery, the weeks of chemotherapy and radiation: a gift? Yet, after the cancer, David would often reach for my hand and say, “If it is cancer that is responsible for our new relationship, then it was all worth it.” And I’d reluctantly agree that cancer had been a gift in our lives. We’d both seen the other alternative: patients and survivors who had become bitter and angry, and neither one of us wanted to become that.

How Cancer Cured a Marriage

Chemo-Therapist

“Where is the handbook for widows?” Mary Kenyon lamented as she planned a funeral for the beloved husband whose triumph over cancer she chronicled in Chemo-Therapist: How Cancer Cured a Marriage. During the ensuing weeks, as she attempted to make sense of his untimely death, she filled two journals, blogged, and read the inspirational writings of others who had gone down the road of grief before her—authors like C.S. Lewis and Madeleine L’Engle. She eventually found herself studying grief and bereavement in her quest to unearth answers to alleviating the pain associated with profound loss. In the process, she discovered a strength and emotional reserve she didn’t know she had, along with an evolving faith that helped her face the impending loss of an eight-year-old grandson. “In the midst of the darkness of loss, I found light. Admittedly, in those first weeks, it might have been but a single small spark I sensed deep inside of me, but that spark guided me in the twisted, dark journey of grief. As I stumbled over the roots of hopelessness and despair, that light grew to illuminate my path, a path I sometimes felt very alone on. At some point in the journey I’d turned around, and there was God. "That is grace.” In beautiful prose, touching metaphors and stories, and actual journal entries, Mary Potter Kenyon provides a balm for the grieving soul.

A Journey of Grief and Grace

Refined by Fire

Mary Jedlicka Humston

Mary & Me: A Lasting Link Through Ink explores a thirty-year friendship between two women: one who had never learned to cultivate female friendships, and the other who had managed to gather and maintain a large group of friends throughout her adult life. The fact that thousands of handwritten letters between them tethered these two together is just part of the intriguing story. Coauthors Mary Potter Kenyon--author of Refined by Fire, Coupon Crazy, and Chemo-Therapist--and Mary Jedlicka Humston share an unforgettable friendship that will inspire you to pick up your pen and begin writing "Dear . . . "

Mary and Me

Coupon Crazy examines the phenomena of coupon use and the socio-cultural and socioeconomic factors that construct it, from the viewpoint of an active participant in the extreme sport of couponing.

The Science, the Savings, and the Stories Behind America's Extreme Obsession

Coupon Crazy

Faith & Grief Book Club pick Having experienced the loss of a mother, husband, and grandson in the space of three years, author Mary Potter Kenyon, author of Chemo-Therapist: How Cancer Cured a Marriage wrote her way out of the abyss of grief. Refined By Fire: A Journey of Grief and Grace chronicles a personal faith journey that offers hope and encouragement to anyone grieving a loved one.

The author of Expressive Writing for Healing shows readers how to explore their potential, embrace your creative spark, and live a more fulfilled life. “I’m not creative. I could never do something like that. I don’t have time to be creative.” Does any of this sound familiar? Do you find yourself wishing that you had pursued your creative talents before it was too late? In a world full of creativity, there is no such thing as “too late.” Called to Be Creative is for anyone looking to reignite that tiny spark inside of them and invite creativity into their lives through simple, everyday practices. A certified grief counselor and a Program Coordinator for Shalom Spirituality Center, Mary Potter Kenyon walks you step by step through the process of exploring your true potential in this inspirational guide to embracing your innate creativity. With in-depth research from the most notable creative authorities, insight from creative pioneers, her personal experiences, and small activities to kick-start your own creative revolution, Kenyon offers you everything you need to live a more creative life. “I devoured this book. Each chapter is filled with encouragement and inspiration. If you’re looking for something to feed your creative soul, this is it.” —Debbie Macomber, #1 New York Times bestselling author “Mary Potter Kenyon skillfully braids together stories about her personal life, stories about the lives of people she knows, philosophical ideas, practical advice, current research, and interesting and motivating activities for the reader, creating something that makes you want to put the book down and start creating something wonderful.” —Doug Shaw, author of Social Nonsense: Creative Diversions for Two or More Players

Mary Potter Kenyon

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