Big Love: The Power of Living with a Wide-Open Heart

Life has thrown Scott Stabile (Just Love) countless curveballs. When he was 14, his parents were murdered at their Detroit grocery store, leaving Stabile and his six siblings orphaned. Nine years later, his brother died from a heroin overdose. As a young adult, Stabile became entangled with a spiritual cult; his decision to break away resulted in being ostracized by once-close friends. Then, a significant professional setback left him questioning his life's direction and meaning.

Stabile shares how his personal traumas have provided opportunities for growth while also shaping his sense of identity and purpose. "The hardest experiences of our lives never stop living with us," he writes. "They move forward into our day-to-day existence, and we are left to decide how we want to integrate the pain." For Stabile, that means approaching his relationships with everyone--his siblings, his partner, his Facebook community of more than 350,000 followers and even his parents' murderer--from a foundation of love.

In Big Love, Stabile isn't afraid to let his vulnerability show while reflecting on his own journeys of excavating buried pain, acknowledging fear, finding paths towards forgiveness (including from ourselves), living authentically and developing resilience. He offers a sincere blend of honesty and humor while replacing platitudes with perspectives grounded by individual experiences.

"We are, each of us, forced to survive circumstances we would never have consciously chosen for ourselves. We're all dealing with the reality of some of our feared what-ifs. In those realities, however, lives our strength and resilience, our ability to handle the unpredictable and sometimes tragic aspects of life." --Melissa Firman, writer, editor and blogger at melissafirman.com.

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