Lift

<b>No matter when and why this comes to your hands, I want to put down on paper how things started with us.</b><br /><br /> Written as a letter to her children, Kelly Corrigan&apos;s <i>Lift</i> is a tender, intimate, and robust portrait of risk and love; a touchstone for anyone who wants to live more fully. In <i>Lift</i>, Corrigan weaves together three true and unforgettable stories of adults willing to experience emotional hazards in exchange for the gratifications of raising children.<br /><br /><i>Lift</i> takes its name from hang gliding, a pursuit that requires flying directly into rough air, because turbulence saves a glider from "sinking out." For Corrigan, this wisdom--that to fly requires chaotic, sometimes even violent passages--becomes a metaphor for all of life&apos;s most meaningful endeavors, particularly the great flight that is parenting.<br /><br /> Corrigan serves it up straight--how mundanely and fiercely her children have been loved, how close most lives occasionally come to disaster, and how often we fall short as mothers and fathers. <i>Lift</i> is for everyone who has been caught off guard by the pace and vulnerability of raising children, to remind us that our work is important and our time limited.<br /><br /> Like Anne Morrow Lindbergh&apos;s <i>Gift from the Sea, Lift</i> is a meditation on the complexities of a woman&apos;s life, and like Corrigan&apos;s memoir, <i>The Middle Place, Lift</i> is boisterous and generous, a book readers can&apos;t wait to share.