Out Came the Sun
Amity: Your perspective in the books is
almost like reading your journal. It’s beautiful
how you were able to write about your
parents and sisters in an objective, yet kind
and compassionate, way. How do you think
you remained less affected than the other
members of your family?
Mariel: I think some of us put ourselves in
a world where we want to get better. Some
people grow up embedded in deception and
denial. It’s the reality of what we’re taught and
what we perpetuate. It’s really hard to make
the choice to change. It isn’t a place to think
you’re better than anyone else or the people
you came from.
If you want to be healthy – body, mind, spirit
– and really connected, you have to do that
digging and discovering. And it’s so rewarding.
Memories really can’t hurt us. They’re so scary
in our head, but the minute you say them or
write them down, it’s like, “Oh ,that’s not so
bad. Nothing came out and bit me.” So we
have misconceptions. Our fears are the fears
of things we allow to be buried. But they kind
of have a voice and they speak to you, so you
push them away. Ultimately, you can push
something away so long that eventually it
slams you. And the outcome of that can be
physical illness, mental illness, poor relationships, inability to communicate.
There are so many ways it manifests, but we
all have the choice to change. We all have the
choice to be healthy. We really do. And that’s
just becoming conscious about all the choices
we make. How we parent, what we eat, whether we remember to breathe or take time to be
silent. The things that seem little… but they’re
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actually big and have a profound effect on our
growth and expansion into the world.
Amity: Our readers are quite interested in
food, and I know they’ll be interested in your
thoughts. In the books, you talk about how
you used food as a way of exerting control in
your life. So you had lots of rules about what
you woul B