Commonplace Reader in Yardley is presenting a free online event featuring local authors and resilience experts Dr. Lise Deguire, Mary Fran Bontempo and Kristen Smedley on Sunday, March 21, from 7 to 8 p.m.
The theme of this event is reimagining your personal resilience, and discovering how you can harness your superpowers to reset, rise and ultimately reveal your unique purpose. The information panel discussion will feature inspirational and motivational stories, practical tips and strategies, and a lot of humor. Attendees will leave with concrete steps they can take to overcome life’s challenges – the major ones, as well as the day-to-day obstacles we have faced during the pandemic.
The moderator of this interactive panel discussion will be local resident and author Sherry Sadoff Hanck. Attendees are encouraged to come with questions and share their stores.
“I am thrilled to be hosting this event featuring such inspirational and empowering women,” said Commonplace Reader owner Elizabeth Young. “It seems fitting that we are holding this event in March, the month that celebrates women’s contributions throughout history.”
Deguire, author of Flashback Girl: Lessons on Resilience from a Survivor, is a clinical psychologist practicing in Pennington, New Jersey. At the age of 4, she was third-degree burned on 65 percent of her body as the result of both maternal and corporate negligence. Against the odds, she lived through this injury, beginning decades of excruciating surgeries. She grew up in a highly dysfunctional family, losing four members to suicide. Despite these life challenges, Deguire has forged a triumphant path toward love, health and life satisfaction. She waited 50 years to write her memoir, until her entire family of origin was gone. Visit lisedeguire.com.
Bontempo and Smedley founded “Brilliantly Resilient,” an empowering road map to overcoming life’s challenges, in 2020, just prior to the pandemic. It grew out of them individually managing personal “sucker punches.” Smedley’s two sons were unexpectedly born blind, and Bontempo’s son struggled with heroin addiction and substance abuse for many years. Navigating these unanticipated life blows inspired them to create the resource for others that they never had. “Brilliantly Resilient” is a process of tools and strategies that can help people come through train wrecks brilliantly, not broken. The book Brilliantly Resilient: Reset, Rise and Reveal Your Brilliance is an Amazon bestseller. They also built an international Facebook community and launched a podcast. Visit brilliantlyresilient.net and facebook.com/groups/brilliantlyresilient.
Visit commonplace-reader.com for additional information.
