Walker is a memoir about one woman’s spiritual journey to open her heart and develop compassion. Through it all, her own gumption would be her steady companion.

It starts out with a young girl raised in a singing Lutheran family where things looked good on the outside. But inside, Jill Loree was struggling. Later, she would “trudge the dreary road of destiny,” as the AA Big Book puts it, getting sober at 26 and picking up only one white chip. That’s not nothing, considering that most of Jill Loree’s childhood memories are infused with her father’s drinking. Her mother, on the other hand, had a controlling, co-dependent streak that wouldn’t end. Sounds dreary indeed, right?

In this spiritual memoir however, Jill Loree artfully lifts the story out of the ditch and finds the grace weaving between the lines. Walker also merges in a touch of poetry—her own, her sons’ and even her Dad’s—adding heart, depth and levity to the telling. Her gentle wit and brisk writing pace keeps things moving along. True to the title, there’s no need to sit and stew in misery.

Today, Jill Loree’s spiritual path is filled with the light of Christ, which is what she has discovered emerges from the core of one’s being after clearing away the detritus accumulated in youth. Just as the Pathwork Guide said it would. That’s the deeper message she is now passionate about sharing, and which shines through in this warm telling of the story of her life.