Cancer Mesothelioma

Grace and Grit Spirituality and Healing in the Life and Death of Treya Killam Wilber

Here is a deeply moving account of a couple’s struggle with cancer and their journey to spiritual healing. Grace and Grit is the compelling story of the five-year journey of Ken Wilber and his wife Treya Killam Wilber through Treya’s illness, treatment, and, finally, death.

User Ratings and Reviews

5 Stars Important book
This is my favorite book, period. No, it’s not light comedy and you already know the ending. It’s worth finding out what happens even with the seemingly tragic ending. This book is an account of two very inspiring individuals. Unfortunately, most of us will be touched by cancer sometime in our lives. This book will help with that struggle.

5 Stars Understanding Love and Life Through Pain
Wilber writes about his journey, in this life, with his late wife Treya. They met when they both had given up on finding the “right one”….and then Wilber and Treya experienced love and “practised the wound of love” for the 5 years they were together through their ordeals with Treya’s malignant breast cancer.

Wilber says “real love shatters you, if you have not been devastated by love, you have not really loved..” Any reader who has ever experienced any form of love would understand what Wilber is talking about. There is, always, pain at the deepest core of ecstasy…the power of real love can shine on and shatter our lives all at the same time.

Wilber brings his personal ideas about consciousness, integral being and lifestyle which he has pioneered over the past 3 decades, which I thought is very natural. His life with Treya was a process where he learnt more about himself, his ideas and consolidated his philosophical views. His work is his purpose, evidently, so I felt it was very appropriate that be brings that up in the book. I feel some readers might find it “too much” if they haven’t read any Wilber before or not open to considering certain novel ideas about mind, spirituality, existence and the like.

I thoroughly loved reading this book, it resonated deeply within my experience…tears were utterly inevitable knowing about two people so deeply in love and trying to let go of each other…hats off to Wilber for his unfathomable integrity in describing his struggles when he blamed Treya for all problems in his life after their marriage, when he admitted that he got drunk in Germany and lost control of all his emotions while grieving profoundly for his wife he knew would die, when he was allured, slightly, by the full-bodied German prostitute and completely & openly recognized what was going on, when he so bluntly talked about his own neurotic self and how he transcended it…consciously..

So, I would highly recommend this book to anyone who wishes to develop a deeper relationship with their lives, who does NOT believe in true love and is willing to test it, anyone who suffers from an addiction to lust (!), anyone who wants something new in their lives….this book has the power to change lives.

5 Stars Great book - must read
My father died of cancer a month ago.

He was the great and strong person. I loved him more than anyone.

There were two quotes in the book I loved:

“Because I can no longer ignore death - I pay more attention to life”

” I learnt that love is about letting go, rather than holding on”

This book will change you, if this is what you are looking for.

3 Stars Interesting But a bit to Heady
I enjoyed this book for a short time, but found it too much of a head experience. There is some profound wisdom and insight shared as well as a touching true life story. But I did find it difficult to remain motivated to read it all.

Michael Skowronski

Author of Unforgettable: A Love and Spiritual Growth Story

5 Stars Bought 5 copies!
Valuable information for all of us as cancer patients or caregivers. The added bonus is getting to know two incredible human beings as they experience the ultimate pain of living, loving and dying. Ken Wilber, a GIANT mind is more real to me now. This book is a good intro to his thoughts and writings. Treya is a role model for grace and grit.

Buy/More Info

Filed under: Cancer Books