Carry On, Warrior: The Power of Embracing Your Messy, Beautiful Life

by Fred Abbott, Glennon Doyle Melton

Overview

For years Glennon Doyle Melton built a wall between herself and others, hiding inside a bunker of secrets and shame. But one day everything changed: Glennon woke up to life, committing herself to living out loud and giving language to our universal (yet often secret) experiences. She became a sensation when her personal essays started going viral. Her hilarious and poignant observations have been read by millions, shared among friends, discussed at water coolers, and have now inspired a social movement. In Carry On, Warrior, Melton shares new stories and the best-loved material from Momastery.com. Her mistakes and triumphs demonstrate that love wins and that together we can do hard things. Melton is a courageous truth-teller and hopespreader, a wise and witty friend who emboldens us to believe in ourselves and reminds us that the journey is the reward. Carry On, Warrior proves that by shedding our weapons and armor, we can stop hiding, competing, and striving for the mirage of perfection, to build better lives in our hearts, homes, and communities.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781451698237
Publisher:	Scribner
Publication date:	04/02/2013
Sold by:	SIMON & SCHUSTER
Format:	eBook
Pages:	288
Sales rank:	86,652
File size:	4 MB

About the Author

Glennon Doyle Melton is the founder of Momastery.com and a regular contributor to The Huffington Post. She lives in Florida, with her family.

What People are Saying About This

Rachel Held Evans

“Funny,honest, and brave, Glennon Melton joins the ranks of Anne Lamott, Sara Miles,and Barbara Brown Taylor by giving her readers a precious gift:permission—permission to doubt, permission to believe, permission to struggle,permission to laugh, permission to tell the truth, and permission to do it allimperfectly. Carry On, Warrior takes its place among the best ofspiritual memoirs as the kind of book readers will want to return to again andagain. It reads like a conversation with a close friend, but impacts theheart like an encounter with the divine.”

Geneen Roth

“CarryOn, Warrior is a fierce, outrageous and laugh-out-loud book about emergingfrom addiction and living life at full-tilt.”

Vanessa Diffenbaugh

“Glennon embodies all that we want to be and fear we are not: she is authentic, funny, wise, loving, and resilient in the face of extraordinary challenges. But the magic of Carry On, Warrior is that by the time you finish the book, you realize you ARE all those things, and more. It is a book that actually makes you feel that you are loved and cherished. Has a book ever accomplished anything more marvelous than that?”

New York Times bestselling author of Daring Greatly: How the Courage to be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, - Brene Brown

“Glennon Doyle Melton is church and Carry On, Warrior reads like one of those old rollicking hymns that make you want to stand up at the end and shout, “Amen!” Life is indeed “brutiful” but Glennon’s humor, warmth, and honesty are profound reminders that there is beauty in our struggle. I can’t stop thinking about this book.”

Editorial Reviews

According to Clennon Melton, its creator, her "Momastery" blog gained it name because, in her view, motherhood is a kind of monastery: "It's a sacred place, apart from the world, where a seeker can figure out what matters and catch glimpses of God. It's also like being pecked to death by merciless chickens." In Melton's memoir Carry On, Warrior, we gain extended glimpses of both worlds; incandescent mother-child moments and the endless, exhausting days when nothing seems to go right. Along the way, our self-admitted less than intrepid confesses to suffering and recovering from alcoholism, bulimia, smoking, a shopping obsession, and periodic outbreaks of self-loathing. Mothers will relate instantly to Melton's dilemmas and triumphs; for the rest of us, it will be a very welcome education.

Refreshingly frank, if somewhat gooey entries from a blog (monastery.com) offer advice on parenting and exhaustion to women trying to be tolerant Christians and helpful wives. Raising three kids in the Florida suburbs while wife to a software salesman, and part-time model (with perfect teeth), Melton shares her comments on life’s adorable moments, such as letters of encouragement to her grade-school son, Chase, if he is being bullied for presumably being a homosexual, or reminders to herself to “quit chasing happiness long enough to notice it smiling right at ,” yet tinged with some excoriating, revelatory, and self-forgiving details that raise the work out of the merely platitudinous. A self-described “recovering everything,” that is, former alcoholic, bulimic, smoker, and ongoing shopaholic, Melton reveals some truly desperate moments of her life, such as a premarital pregnancy in 2002 that prompted her to get sober, an early abortion that has allowed her to be more accepting of others’ failings, a “twisty, mapless” marriage that has proven ultimately sound and gratifying, a recent diagnosis of Lyme disease, and a six-year attempt to adopt a Guatemalan child that was rejected by the agencies because she and her husband were considered to be “too much of a risk.” Writing, or as she calls it “living out loud,” is for Melton a bracing therapy to chase away loneliness, learn humility, and banish the fears of revealing the less than flattering sides of herself. (Apr.)

Publishers Weekly

In Carry On, Warrior, Glennon Melton’s honesty, thoughtfulness, and humor will keep readers racing through the pages—and set them thinking more deeply about their own lives.”

“Glennon embodies all that we want to be and fear we are not: she is authentic, funny, wise, loving, and resilient in the face of extraordinary challenges. But the magic of Carry On, Warrior is that by the time you finish the book, you realize you ARE all those things, and more. It is a book that actually makes you feel that you are loved and cherished. Has a book ever accomplished anything more marvelous than that?”

“CarryOn, Warrior is a fierce, outrageous and laugh-out-loud book about emergingfrom addiction and living life at full-tilt.”

“Funny,honest, and brave, Glennon Melton joins the ranks of Anne Lamott, Sara Miles,and Barbara Brown Taylor by giving her readers a precious gift:permission—permission to doubt, permission to believe, permission to struggle,permission to laugh, permission to tell the truth, and permission to do it allimperfectly. Carry On, Warrior takes its place among the best ofspiritual memoirs as the kind of book readers will want to return to again andagain. It reads like a conversation with a close friend, but impacts theheart like an encounter with the divine.”

“An inspirational guide. Only by living in a state of loving vulnerability [was Melton able] to do what she desired most: touch others and be touched by them in return. Gentle words of wisdom from a woman driven by 'senseless, relentless hope.'”

"Refreshingly frank. Writing, or as she calls it 'living out loud,' is for Melton a bracing therapy to chase away loneliness, learn humility, and banish the fears of revealing the less than flattering sides of herself."

“Glennon Doyle Melton is church and Carry On, Warrior reads like one of those old rollicking hymns that make you want to stand up at the end and shout, “Amen!” Life is indeed “brutiful” but Glennon’s humor, warmth, and honesty are profound reminders that there is beauty in our struggle. I can’t stop thinking about this book.

From the Publisher

“Melton, God love her, has the courage and the resolve and the wit to show us all of her dimensions. She's the anti-Instagram. Her words make the world a better place.And a healing place.

Chicago Tribune

CarryOn, Warrior is a fierce, outrageous and laugh-out-loud book about emergingfrom addiction and living life at full-tilt.

Geneen Roth

Every once in a while, a writer turns up who is just that special. This is definitely the case with Glennon Doyle Melton. She’s a hit because everything she writes runs deep and true–and makes us laugh. Glennon’s like your favorite girlfriend: game to talk about anything, unafraid to take chances, and refreshingly honest about her past and present struggles.

Parents.com

First and foremost, Melton's book is chock-a-block with great characters, and she's number one. Melton pulls this off with the help of smart, funny, plain prose.”—

Bookotron.com - The Agony Column

Carry On Warrior is like sitting down for a cup of coffee with a friend to share stories, laughter, and tears, mixed with a whole lot of “me too!”s and “I thought I was the only one.” You leave refreshed, renewed, and reminded that we aren't alone in this. Not even a little.It isn't the kind of book you put down and say “oh, that was good.” It’s the kind of book you put down, then go to the store and buy three more copies because you know you are going to run into someone who needs them.

Examiner.com

Glennon is…a fantastic writer and speaker — funny, real, open, passionate, heartfelt, and inspiring. I was inspired both personally and professionally by her presence, her talent, her humility, her message and her vulnerability.

Huffington Post, Good News Blog - Mike Robbins

In Carry On, Warrior, Glennon Melton’s honesty, thoughtfulness, and humor will keep readers racing through the pages—and set them thinking more deeply about their own lives.

Gretchen Rubin

Glennon embodies all that we want to be and fear we are not: she is authentic, funny, wise, loving, and resilient in the face of extraordinary challenges. But the magic of Carry On, Warrior is that by the time you finish the book, you realize you ARE all those things, and more. It is a book that actually makes you feel that you are loved and cherished. Has a book ever accomplished anything more marvelous than that?

Vanessa Diffenbaugh

Funny,honest, and brave, Glennon Melton joins the ranks of Anne Lamott, Sara Miles,and Barbara Brown Taylor by giving her readers a precious gift:permission—permission to doubt, permission to believe, permission to struggle,permission to laugh, permission to tell the truth, and permission to do it allimperfectly. Carry On, Warrior takes its place among the best ofspiritual memoirs as the kind of book readers will want to return to again andagain. It reads like a conversation with a close friend, but impacts theheart like an encounter with the divine.

Rachel Held Evans

Glennon Doyle Melton is church and Carry On, Warrior reads like one of those old rollicking hymns that make you want to stand up at the end and shout, “Amen!” Life is indeed “brutiful” but Glennon’s humor, warmth, and honesty are profound reminders that there is beauty in our struggle. I can’t stop thinking about this book.

New York Times bestselling author of Daring Greatly: How the Courage to be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, - Brene Brown

Glennon Doyle Melton is church and Carry On, Warrior reads like one of those oldrollickinghymns that make you want to stand up at the end and shout, “Amen!” Life is indeed “brutiful” but Glennon’s humor, warmth, and honesty are profound reminders that there is beauty in our struggle. I can’t stop thinking about this book.

New York Times bestselling author of Daring Greatly: How the Courage to be Vulnerable Tra - Brené Brown

Glennon’s writing is like a warm embrace. She shines that little light of hers over the whole wide mommy world, reminding us that it is OK – more than OK, our right – to be who we are, no apologies. And we as mothers matter. Because when you spend so much time focusing on everyone else’s needs, you often forget that you count too.

Family Circle.com

"Sometimes, someone says exactly what you need to hear right when you need it most. Glennon Doyle Melton is that someone for me. I’ve been reading her lovely, funny new book, Carry on, Warrior—and when I got to the chapter titled, 'Don’t Carpe Diem,' I knew I’d found a spirit guide."

Westchester Parent Magazine - Ellen Pocost

Will melt your heart and inspire you in one fell swoop!

Allparenting.com

Carry On, Warrior is precisely the kind of book I hope the parents in my congregation will read. Melton is a richly gifted storyteller, and her shamelessness is the best kind, rooted in a refusal to believe that she is anything other than a forgiven and beloved child of God.

Christian Century Magazine - Katherine Willis Pershey

A wife and mother's reflections on being imperfect and loving it. When people from her church started telling blogger and momastery.com founder Melton that she and her family seemed so "perfect," she was dismayed. Rather than continue to let others believe that she led a trouble-free life, the author decided to become "a reckless truth-teller." In a memoir that is also an inspirational guide to daily living, Melton tells the story of how she learned to carry on through the inevitable trials of living "without armor and without weapons." For two decades, she writes, "I was lost to food and booze and bad love and drugs." Her problems with alcohol and drugs led to arrests, a criminal record and difficulties getting a job. Although she was happily married, Melton's relationship with her husband had begun as a result of "confusing sex with love, and [winding] up pregnant." Then one day she was diagnosed with Lyme disease. Melton credits a deep faith in God as well as strong connections with her family as being the cornerstones of her personal success. But as with everything else, learning to make those relationships work was a daily challenge. As a wife, Melton had to be willing to not only understand her husband's needs, but be honest about her own and find effective ways to communicate them. As a mother, she had to learn to forgive herself for allowing her anxieties "to pour out like gasoline on [the] raging fire" of her children's tantrums and other difficult behaviors. Only by living in a state of loving vulnerability would she be able to do what she desired most: touch others and be touched by them in return. Gentle words of wisdom from a woman driven by "senseless, relentless hope."

Kirkus Reviews