Tia Shurina is the author of “Everything and a Happy Ending” and “Another Happy Ending: Lessons in Love, Loss, and Full-Circle Acceptance”. “Everything and a Happy Ending” is a memoir about three interconnected relationships and three special men in her life. “Another Happy Ending” shares about the journey that began for Tia just as the cover was about to close on that first book. According to the book’s summary: "Another Happy Ending" is a memoir manifesto that takes you through Tia’s trip back to a place she’d spent many mini-lives baby-stepping to leave while also chronicling her sojourn out of that uncomfortable comfort zone into a space of the unknown once again. This follow up to her first memoir holds your hand as her dad held hers from heaven. After a prayer to make it to another holy precipice both God and her father helped her to trust another leap of faith. Her devotion to his advice, hold your form, will hopefully inspire any reader struggling with disappointment or dissatisfaction in any part of their life to take a babystep into the beautiful but scary abyss. I recently had the chance to interview Tia. During our conversation, Tia shared how she learned to trust in the flow of her life and God while navigating some painful difficult life experiences, not just keep faith through the happy times. In particular, she talks with honesty and authenticity about her struggle to end her marriage, developing a relationship with another man afterwards, and how her relationship with her father and mother impacted her before and after their deaths. Tia’s vulnerability and insights are particularly helpful for anyone who is trying to better understand and move forward during challenging relationships with their partner, loved ones, or parents.
Towards the end of the interview Tia momentarily had a “brain freeze”. After the interview ended she wanted to share the following with you… After mentioning in the beginning of my talk with Matthew my brain going blank sometimes, of course it had to happen! I’m just grateful I made it almost to the end before that moment! And as I knew would be the case, it did in fact pop right back into my mind after he turned off the recording and I finished the thought with him privately. He has graciously indulged me by allowing me to share it here and now... When he mentions both the beauty and the pain of life my mind immediately moved to one of my favorite words, beautyfull. Finding the beauty and the blessings in all of life, including the painful parts, held such an important key for me in my relationships that along the way I started spelling it the way I do now to remind me. Life’s challenging moments can make it difficult to remember that and it has become an important way for me to circle back to that truth when I’m struggling so I can move through them. When I began focusing on all the goodness my then husband and I brought to each others' lives, rather than beating my own self up, or Larry at times, for feeling a failure for any perceived wrongs or mistakes it was then I was able to embrace the many blessings held within my marriage. It is ultimately how I really truly honor my relationship with my ex-husband, each of my parents, both my boys, and as well the man I fell in love with. It was and remains, ALL beautyfull, even when there is pain, even amidst any difficulty, even through the disappointments and sadnesses life sometimes delivers to our door. It can certainly be challenging at times to see beauty when we are not feeling very pretty, or during times that can feel ugly, or to be able to uncover the gems in our dark moments. I wrote about the significance that spell change held for me personally, yet this was ultimately cut from what had become a very long manuscript to make it possible for the reader to move through my journey with me without having to take the actual length of time it took me. But so profoundly helpful has it been that I asked Matthew if I could finish my thought and share it in this email. I thank each and every one again, for watching and listening. Wishing you all happy endings, always. P.S. I’m well aware of the profound significance for our country of the date this email is coming from Matthew. But since it held such importance to my own personal story, holding a holy lesson for me as I watched my husband, a NYC firefighter, jump on his bike to head into the city that morning, becoming a powerful turning point in my life and spending the year that followed writing some ‘words left unsaid’ letters to some special people in my life that I had been reminded could be gone in a split second, I asked Matthew if he would accommodate my request. In about two weeks it will be the one year anniversary of the publishing of "Another Happy Ending", another important date. While taking a much needed break from my own story so to speak, and allowing myself a much needed rest in the months after it published I was reminded over and again of life’s fragility, its sacredness…and of course its ordinary, and extraordinary beauty.
