The well of life

Title: ‘THE WELL OF LIFE... Finding the extraordinary in an ordinary person’
Publisher: Mustard Impressions
Author: Hannah Arabella Ewura Esi Tachie-Menson
Distribution: University of Ghana Bookshop
No of pages: 99 pages
Price: GH¢30
Reviewer: Enimil Ashon

This book came to me as a manuscript, for editing. Halfway through, I knew instinctively — as I always do upon tasting a great work of art — that it would be a personal delight to be asked to publicly endorse it. Great books are like a great sermon: you know, and you know, that you’d have been poorer in knowledge and wisdom without them. They enrich life.

‘THE WELL OF LIFE: FINDING THE EXTRAORDINARY IN AN ORDINARY PERSON’ is my personal favourite of three books released simultaneously by the author (the others being ‘SIMPLE REASONS TO SAY THANK YOU’ and ‘IT’S TIME TO SEE AGAIN’)

Prediction

My prediction is that ‘The Well of Life’ will change, for good, the way young people approach the world; it is so life changing that you immediately think of it as a gift to a dear one. That is exactly what happened to me. The manuscript came to me at a time a niece overseas was going through an emotionally traumatic patch in life, a series of bad encounters with the opposite sex.

With the kind permission of the author, I wired her a soft copy of the chapter subtitled ‘Wells’. Within two weeks, she sent me a WhatsApp message saying, “The book is life changing!!”

‘The Well of Life’ is what the author says in the Introduction: “It … speaks to every woman longing for fulfilment, a better life, and to be a better person. It reveals the heart of a woman who has survived many broken relationships and still chooses to be positive about life.”

The content is directed at young ladies (and also adolescent-to-teenage young men) “whose dreams get badly dashed into such tiny pieces that there is nothing left to pick up after the accident”. It is for such that the book has been written. To such people, the author’s promise is that God will use the book to reshape their lives. To do this — that is, to reshape their lives — God will first bring them out of (their) comfort zone and take (them) through unpleasant circumstances just to catch their attention”.

Manual

Ewura Esi has produced a manual for independent women who find themselves in patriarchal societies, especially in Africa. She is at war against the stranglehold such women find themselves in which they are “painted and perceived as being arrogant, opinionated and unable to submit to the authority of a husband.”

I particularly love this book because it is born from a womb of research by an author who eats scripture, an undoubtedly experienced lady who is steeped in philosophies of life. It is so well written, with a style that is admirably simple. The reader will come to the same conclusion when they read the chapter on ‘Wells’.

Do you have a son, daughter, niece, nephew or young friend whose life could become extraordinary by the wave of a magic wand? This book is that wand. Put a copy in their hand. It may as well be the best gift they ever received from you, the kairos moment they will never forget.

I know why Ewura Esi chose to put her thoughts on paper: she writes so well, with considerable panache. I forgot to ask if she read English as a first degree!

Another thing: Did you know that the woman who met Jesus at Jacob’s Well in John’s Gospel chapter 4, has a name? The author has managed to find out. By way of introduction, the author is one of those Christians about whom it is said that they eat scripture.

Ewura Esi Techie-Menson has a second book on the market. Titled, Simple Reasons To Say Thank You, it is a comparatively smaller book that will fit into the shirt or back pocket of the men and the purse of the ladies. That’s exactly where it should be (in the pocket) because it will be needed for quick reference. ‘Simple Thank You’ is a check on your manners and a reminder of courtesies that should become second nature to you.