Cocoon” is a triumphant book, a memoir that shows triumph of the human spirit when an “ordinary woman,” someone like you and me, throws her heart into fulfilling a need she sees in her community, and a triumph for a whole community of good people who back the author in her vision of a refuge for homeless teens in the small city where she worked.
The book is a page turner. Honest! It almost reads like “The Perils of Pauline” as the author stumbles upon one obstacle after another: initially encountering reluctant, untrusting teens; finding a suitable house for a shelter; figuring out how to sustain an older house with old-house issues; finding ways to help the many traumatized kids who walk through her door; learning what’s needed to care for infants of homeless fourteen-year-olds; constantly having to raise money for food and for staff salaries. She goes from one adventure to another, almost breathlessly, as in there is no time to breathe between the barrage of challenges.
The author skillfully takes the reader on her journey, including many moments of, “Oh no, what is she going to do now? How is she going to get out of this one? Can she get the homeless teen to stay? Will the teen who ran away come back?” The reader gets attached to the teens the author cares so deeply about.
This is a remarkable story, exceptionally well told. I referred to the author Sarri Gilman as “an ordinary woman,” but her grit, civic and interpersonal navigation skills, and determination to get where she’s going make her an extraordinary woman—and tells us that any of us can be that, too, if we jump in with both feet to make a difference in our own communities. She tapped the goodness that lies in all our communities, goodness that emerges when an unheralded leader with a vision puts her head down and goes for it.
The book also leads us toward recognizing what to do when our emotional resources dry up. After ten intense and hugely successful years, the author, a psychotherapist, leads us through her own encounter with burn out and her need to moved forward. We can all learn from her.
A priceless memoir.
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