Meet author Shirley Bryson
Excerpts Excerpts from “Love: The fuel that runs a marriage” by Shirley N. Bryson There’s a sense of ownership when a couple has committed to a life together. “He’s MY husband.” “She’s MY wife.” “When someone belongs to you, you feel a fierce loyalty and responsibility toward them. They know you’ll be there in good times and bad.” “Love can be a hard thing to understand and a harder thing to live out. There’s a lot in the Bible to help us with how to define and live love, including the powerful love chapter, I Corinthians 13.” “‘Kind’ may be the word that is most closely the same as love. Kindness can change your life, whether you’re giving it or receiving it.” “Owning a kind spirit is emotionally liberating.” “Kindness is a strength, a fearlessness, especially when the popular trend is to be unkind.” “I think the big lesson I learned from our years of marriage enrichment is that your marriage is worth fighting for and that there are times when you absolutely will have to fight for it.” “Home should be a haven for husband and wife, a place to get away from the world, to relax, to know you are emotionally safe.” “I want you to be happy in your relationships. I want you to be at least half of what’s making your relationship happy.”
Ringgold resident Shirley N. Bryson has written three books and has a fourth almost ready to go.
Bryson’s books come from deep in the heart. “There are things I want to share so other people can be helped,” she says. Those things can percolate and grow for a long time before they’re ready for the public.
Six years after her mother passed away, Bryson says she felt inspired by God to share her experience — the hard times, the good memories, the process of grieving.
“After my mother’s death,” Bryson wrote in her book, “The Jericho Rose,” “I felt I had something to say that would help other women know what to expect and what not to expect when it happens to them. No one can explain how it feels to lose a mother until it happens. Your whole world changes, past, present and future.”
“The Jericho Rose” is a compilation of contemplations about Bryson’s relationship with her
mother and the process of grieving the loss of the most important woman in her life, peppered throughout with poems born of the experience.
“I am so glad my mother passed down to me her faith and belief in God,” Bryson wrote in her book. “She always taught faith, hope and charity. She always gave to the less fortunate. She always had hope.”
“I will always remember my mother’s smile,” says Bryson. “No matter what she was facing, she was a strong woman and I have the strength I have because of her care and the example she set for me.”
Bryson traveled around doing book signings at churches and stores for a while, then life got busy.
She wrote an illustrated children’s book called “The White Bunny” based on a pet she and her husband once had. “It’s a good book for Easter,” says Bryson, though it is not an Easter story. She’s writing a sequel to it now.
In 2022, Bryson felt compelled to share her thoughts on love and building a strong marriage. While she says her 50-plus years of marriage have certainly had their ups and downs, it’s a commitment she has always taken seriously.
The short book, “Love: The fuel that runs a marriage,” is chock-full of personal stories from Bryson and many others, thoughts on building a great relationship, practical and spiritual tips, love notes her husband Ronnie has written in greeting cards over the years, poems, a short story and more.
“It is such a blessing to lie down at night with your “hero,” the one person who loves you ultimately for your attributes and knows all your faults, but loves you endlessly and would do anything for you and protect you,” says Bryson. “My husband Ronnie is truly my hero. I know he would swim the ocean with me on his back if needed, even after all these years. He would fight a fierce lion to protect me. But I also know I had something to do with helping him become that hero.”
Bryson is available for speaking engagements and book signings. She can be reached through Facebook: www.facebook.com/sbryson37
Bryson’s books are available on Amazon.com, in paperback and Kindle.