Book Review 1:
"This wasn't the book I expected...it was better! As a journalist who followed with disgust the unfair character assassination that so completely altered the lives of two of the best people and finest public servants I know, I was looking for Cylvia Hayes to hit back hard at her media detractors for their distortions and cruelty. Instead, I found a book filled with forgiveness and love, and a story of rebirth and transformation that recognizes our deepest fears and hurt, and offers a path to healing. Instead of being consumed by rage, Cylvia Hayes was transformed by her "dark night of the soul" into a voice for reconciliation and renewal. I always respected her mind and courage; now I understand that her heart is even bigger. A fine read in our polarized times." -- John de Graaf,co-author of AFFLUENZA and co-founder of the Happiness Alliance
Book Review 2:
“When Life Blows Up” is a living testimony to the power of forgiveness and the healing available when we allow Wholly Spirit to guide our lives. The book begins with the unasked for demolition of the life Cylvia Hayes knew and all the emotions that accompanied that. This beautiful book takes the reader on an intimate, vulnerable journey through her metamorphosis. All along the way, Hayes keeps the reader in mind, offering practical exercises to help someone who is going through their own disintegration and reinvention process. We witness forgiveness, and her spiritual practice, creating incremental shifts in her awareness and leading her to possibilities she never could have imagined. As she finds a new place in the world, we are given the hope that our place exists too. I loved the way Hayes wove her newly understood Christian upbringing and Course in Miracles consciousness into her story. The acknowledgement of the role ego played in her demise and her explanation of ego juxtaposed with True Self is honest and helpful. As she described disappearing through the steam from the hot tub into a world of presence and stillness, she transmits a sense of the light that is there for all of us. I think many readers will be in turn relating, wondering, and hopeful. If you have ever been, or are currently, in a crucible as intense as what Cylvia Hayes has experienced, I think you will find this a..-- Rev. Jane Hiatt Senior Minister Unity Community of Central Oregon
Book Review 3:
"When Life Blows Up" is at once a cautionary tale and a courageous self-examination from a woman who endured an insidious and devastating public shaming. Cylvia Hayes emerged from years of torment with a universal and eternal message for us all: as hard as it is, you must find a way to forgive those who trespassed against you. She has risen triumphantly and compassionately from childhood trauma, self-inflicted wounds,.and a political scandal.that wasn't. The "sweeping investigation" of Ms. Hayes and former Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber trumpeted by Portland media turned up no criminal wrongdoing, leading hundreds of thousands of Oregonians to wonder, "In a free society, whose job is it to watch the watchdogs?" -- Michael Davis, former executive editor of the Salem (OR ) Statesman Journal
