ILLUMINATING REVIEWS
My Review of Michele Thill’s Best Stories
Siskel or Ebert, I am not.
Ever since I joined ILLUMINATION, Dr. Mehmet Yildiz has been issuing one challenge after another to keep me busy as a writer. In addition, his philosophy of Synergy, Fusion, Diversity, and Serendipity, which are the guiding principles of his publication/community that he created on Medium, by design, offers more opportunities for the writers.
Dr. Y is always a step ahead of the writers in coming up with challenges. His latest idea was to encourage writers to choose their best works to showcase in a story form so the readers can get to know the diversity of a writer’s work.
If that wasn’t a challenge enough, he asked us to review the “best of” articles of other writers, so the readers would know which ones would serve them best.
For my first review, I have chosen Michele Thill’s story. Michele is a Board Certified Health and Wellness Coach who writes about functional medicine and holistic lifestyle. Her stories are heartwarming and inspirational. She has lived an interesting life and brings immense value to the readers.
I came across Michele Thill when she first started writing for Illumination. I loved her introduction: Becoming Michele Thill, which is the first story she has included in her collection.
It’s a heartwarming story about dedication, betrayal, and triumph. The story grabs your attention and you can feel her pain and pleasure in rediscovering herself. She found the strength she needed to overcome her pain by helping others deal with theirs.
I was on my own to support myself, and that would start with me supporting others. At work, while in the WW meeting room, I discovered that those who entered came in wanting to lose weight, but what they really needed was to love themselves… don’t we all!
Michele has a positive outlook on life, and while everyone else is panicking in the middle of the pandemic, she asks, In These Times, Have We Been Given the Gift of Time?
I can’t control what is happening…I can only control how I react to it.
As a health and wellness coach, she specializes in body nutrition and uses her knowledge of Functional Medicine to help her clients. She writes:
As a board certified health and wellness coach, also certified in functional medicine, I have learned that food is not just like medicine, it is medicine.
That is the same as saying, Your body speaks, Are you listening? (one of mine)
In her next story, Stepping out of My Comfort zone, she shares one of her poems and talks about how that can be fun. Her poem, It pays to play, is about finding a surprise.
She uses play as a means of getting in touch with her spiritual side and links to a piece she wrote on that topic within the story.
In Let’s Keep on Lookin’ for the Light, she talks about the P’s of life: Pain, Power, and Pleasure. This is one of my favorite stories by her. She covers so much ground in it. It is almost like “A day in my life,” where she takes us on a journey into her mind. You must read this one.
Over our time together, I have shared the peace I have found, the play I have added, the pleasure in this time in lockdown — how it’s been a gift of time for me.
Today I share the pain… The one thing I have not shared is what I felt would be coming as we moved forward. Why? Because I needed to keep peace within me. Keep positive. Live in the present and not worry about the future.
It’s amazing what some serious reading and soul searching can do for your writing.
2020: Buckle Up — More to Come has an intriguing and provocative featured image to grab your attention. Michele wrote this story after a 7-day hiatus in which she did a lot of reading and soul searching.
It started my journey of going within — to an extent that only can happen when the life you lead blows up. With some additional scary events/times adding to the journey, some actually before the breakup and others after.
She wraps up her Story of Stories with how it all began, her coming to ILLUMINATION.
Why did I join Illumination? To be seen, heard and valued. The End…
…Actually — it was the beginning.
The beginning of a wonderful journey. One I was not looking for but found. And I am so grateful that I did!
Those of us who have been writing on ILLUMINATION for a while know this story well. Being a part of ILLUMINATION has been a life-altering experience for most of us, so it is an apt finish to a great article.
But Wait… There is More
Michele was one of the first ones to add a video to ILLUMINATION’S YouTube channel. In the video, she introduces herself to the community, as she did in her written article. But here, we get to see her smile and hear her lovely voice, too.
Thank you, Dr. Mehmet Yildiz, for creating these challenges for us to grow. This is the first time I have done a review of someone else’s work. I hope it created some value for our readers and did justice to Michele and her work.
As always, thank you for reading and responding.
Rasheed Hooda is a published author and a regular contributor to ILLUMINATION, a writers’ community on Medium where writers support each other.
He is a self-proclaimed weirdo who lives a Freedom Lifestyle and writes about related topics — Travel (a top writer), Personal Growth, Freedom, and entrepreneurship. (Get the Newsletter)
More about me:
An interview by Dr. M Yildiz for ILLUMINATION
