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Staying Power: Writings from a Pandemic Year
Rebuild your resilience after the pandemic and prepare for a new normal!
Life can be tough, even in the best of times. But life in a pandemic requires a special sort of staying power. Imagine yourself doing whatever must be done without giving up, despite how difficult your circumstances or how tired you get. Imagine yourself holding fast to your center.
More than mere stamina, staying power involves exceptional commitment and trust, even a kind of faith. It’s as much about the spirit as the body. We build it by …
*nurturing gratitude
*increasing resilience
*practicing patience
*developing empathy and compassion
*appreciating the beauty of what’s true
*keeping faith with ourselves and others
Multi-genre author Phyllis Cole-Dai draws on the power of wit, insight, storytelling, and emotional intelligence to help you build your resilience. Her weekly Staying Power newsletter has supported a throng of readers throughout the COVID-19 outbreak.
Now she offers you this inspiring collection of soulful musings and poetry to companion you through the remaining pandemic and into the uncharted territory of the “new normal.”
Read to remind yourself how resilient you are.
Read to remember that your spirit is bigger than your anxieties and worries, your wounds and losses.
Read to remember you’re not alone.
Get your copy today and boost your staying power!
Life can be tough, even in the best of times. But life in a pandemic requires a special sort of staying power. Imagine yourself doing whatever must be done without giving up, despite how difficult your circumstances or how tired you get. Imagine yourself holding fast to your center.
More than mere stamina, staying power involves exceptional commitment and trust, even a kind of faith. It’s as much about the spirit as the body. We build it by …
*nurturing gratitude
*increasing resilience
*practicing patience
*developing empathy and compassion
*appreciating the beauty of what’s true
*keeping faith with ourselves and others
Multi-genre author Phyllis Cole-Dai draws on the power of wit, insight, storytelling, and emotional intelligence to help you build your resilience. Her weekly Staying Power newsletter has supported a throng of readers throughout the COVID-19 outbreak.
Now she offers you this inspiring collection of soulful musings and poetry to companion you through the remaining pandemic and into the uncharted territory of the “new normal.”
Read to remind yourself how resilient you are.
Read to remember that your spirit is bigger than your anxieties and worries, your wounds and losses.
Read to remember you’re not alone.
Get your copy today and boost your staying power!
204 pages, Paperback
Published April 1, 2021
4 people are currently reading
11 people want to read
About the author
Phyllis Cole-Dai
19 books29 followers
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Phyllis Cole-Dai began pecking away on an old manual typewriter in childhood and never stopped. Her work explores things that tend to divide us, so that we might wrestle our way into deeper understandings of ourselves and others.
She has authored or edited more than a dozen books in multiple genres. Her latest book is The Singing Stick, a literary novel (September 2024). Other recent titles include Poetry of Presence II: More Mindfulness Poems, Staying Power II: Writings from a Year of Emergence, Staying Power: Writings from a Pandemic Year, For the Sake of One We Love and Are Losing: A Meditative Poem & Journal, Beneath the Same Stars: A Novel of the 1862 U.S.-Dakota War, and Poetry of Presence: An Anthology of Mindfulness Poetry.
Personal Background
Born in 1962 in the farming community of Mt. Blanchard, Ohio, Phyllis eventually graduated with a Bachelor of Arts (English, 1984) from Goshen College; a Master of Theological Studies (1987) from the Methodist Theological School; and a Master of Arts (English, 1993) from The Ohio State University.
Phyllis and her scientist-husband have lived for the past quarter-century in Brookings, South Dakota. In 2025 they will relocate to Catonsville, Maryland.
Speaking
Phyllis has long been in demand as a public speaker. She has appeared in all kinds of settings—religious, spiritual, educational, philanthropic, social-service, and civic. She still presents as her busy schedule allows. Please contact her if you would like to discuss booking possibilities.
Phyllis Cole-Dai began pecking away on an old manual typewriter in childhood and never stopped. Her work explores things that tend to divide us, so that we might wrestle our way into deeper understandings of ourselves and others.
She has authored or edited more than a dozen books in multiple genres. Her latest book is The Singing Stick, a literary novel (September 2024). Other recent titles include Poetry of Presence II: More Mindfulness Poems, Staying Power II: Writings from a Year of Emergence, Staying Power: Writings from a Pandemic Year, For the Sake of One We Love and Are Losing: A Meditative Poem & Journal, Beneath the Same Stars: A Novel of the 1862 U.S.-Dakota War, and Poetry of Presence: An Anthology of Mindfulness Poetry.
Personal Background
Born in 1962 in the farming community of Mt. Blanchard, Ohio, Phyllis eventually graduated with a Bachelor of Arts (English, 1984) from Goshen College; a Master of Theological Studies (1987) from the Methodist Theological School; and a Master of Arts (English, 1993) from The Ohio State University.
Phyllis and her scientist-husband have lived for the past quarter-century in Brookings, South Dakota. In 2025 they will relocate to Catonsville, Maryland.
Speaking
Phyllis has long been in demand as a public speaker. She has appeared in all kinds of settings—religious, spiritual, educational, philanthropic, social-service, and civic. She still presents as her busy schedule allows. Please contact her if you would like to discuss booking possibilities.
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Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
May 7, 2021
I don't read many books these days. I tend to listen to them online because reading relaxes me and I tend to fall asleep if I read before bed. But I ordered this book to add to a few others for an upcoming vacation. I did not plan to read it until June. But it was on the counter in the kitchen and I was waiting for my husband and thought I'd just read the first couple pages. I couldn't stop reading. I took it to bed with me and a flashlight like a kid and read under the covers until I kept falling asleep and had to put the book...and the flashlight away. And now i will have to add another book to my beach bag because I finished "Staying Power" in record time. The way Phyllis weaves her stories and poems in feelings and memories of life during this difficult time is comforting and revealing and puts how I felt into words when I still can't capture them. This book is a must read for all.
July 16, 2021
Phyllis Cole-Dai’s muse nudged her to write material that would help readers cope during the pandemic and launched a free weekly newsletter called “Staying Power” on March 18, 2020. With her book, readers have an opportunity to read those musings, which combine vulnerability, courage, insight, and many good practices to which to aspire. A few of them are to nurture gratitude, practice patience, and develop empathy and compassion.
“Staying power” is a phrase Cole-Dai grew up with “back on the family farm in Ohio.” “More than mere stamina,” Cole-Dai writes, “staying power involves exceptional commitment and trust, even a kind of faith. It’s as much about the spirit as the body.”
Staying Power illustrates that exceptional commitment to her writing, to her family, and to staying connected and compassionate in the midst of it all. The book is heartfelt, uplifting, and such a comfort as it reminds us we aren’t alone. Others have also stumbled, tried to find solid ground, and suffered losses during the pandemic, as well as found the gifts of unexpected connections and “silver linings.”
For Cole-Dai’s 58th birthday during the first year of the pandemic, 2020, she came up with 58 pandemic prayers. One of them is: “May we explore how to touch without touching, how to hold without holding.” There are many tender moments in Staying Power and an appreciation of the ordinary yet magical. One example is evening primroses at sunset unfurling with “a faint whiff of lemon.”
Events in U.S. news travelled far, such as George Floyd “dead at the hands of police.” Cole-Dai includes a list of African Americans killed by police. “We are the medicine for what ails America,” she says, and writes of going to a Justice for Black Lives march in Brookings, South Dakota where she and her husband and son live.
In one of her chapters, “Laughing at the Silver Linings,” Cole-Dai realizes her home is more of a sanctuary than a pit stop. Her interest in writing poetry is “reawakened with a jolt.” Contemplative poems are included throughout the book, including For the Sake of One We Love and Are Losing and a list poem of beliefs in which Cole-Dai writes: “I believe in stepping over the line of what’s nice for the sake of what’s right.”
While her muse nudged Cole-Dai, she also nudges us to “reach inward to tap into our creative self when we’re rocked by bad news or going through a rough patch.” She reminds us, we can all make a difference.
Reflections on her family are throughout the book and Cold-Dai lets readers know about her parents in eldercare. And then the news that her father has passed away at 83 from complications of COVID-19. In the end, Cole-Dai acknowledges COVID-19’s “incalculable harm,” as well as: “You have deepened the urgency I’ve always felt to ease distress and suffering, to imagine a world better than this, to help bridge from here to there. May my species soon learn, at the very least, to intelligently coexist with the virus you’ve brought us.”
Story Circle Book Reviews thanks Mary Ann Moore for this review.
“Staying power” is a phrase Cole-Dai grew up with “back on the family farm in Ohio.” “More than mere stamina,” Cole-Dai writes, “staying power involves exceptional commitment and trust, even a kind of faith. It’s as much about the spirit as the body.”
Staying Power illustrates that exceptional commitment to her writing, to her family, and to staying connected and compassionate in the midst of it all. The book is heartfelt, uplifting, and such a comfort as it reminds us we aren’t alone. Others have also stumbled, tried to find solid ground, and suffered losses during the pandemic, as well as found the gifts of unexpected connections and “silver linings.”
For Cole-Dai’s 58th birthday during the first year of the pandemic, 2020, she came up with 58 pandemic prayers. One of them is: “May we explore how to touch without touching, how to hold without holding.” There are many tender moments in Staying Power and an appreciation of the ordinary yet magical. One example is evening primroses at sunset unfurling with “a faint whiff of lemon.”
Events in U.S. news travelled far, such as George Floyd “dead at the hands of police.” Cole-Dai includes a list of African Americans killed by police. “We are the medicine for what ails America,” she says, and writes of going to a Justice for Black Lives march in Brookings, South Dakota where she and her husband and son live.
In one of her chapters, “Laughing at the Silver Linings,” Cole-Dai realizes her home is more of a sanctuary than a pit stop. Her interest in writing poetry is “reawakened with a jolt.” Contemplative poems are included throughout the book, including For the Sake of One We Love and Are Losing and a list poem of beliefs in which Cole-Dai writes: “I believe in stepping over the line of what’s nice for the sake of what’s right.”
While her muse nudged Cole-Dai, she also nudges us to “reach inward to tap into our creative self when we’re rocked by bad news or going through a rough patch.” She reminds us, we can all make a difference.
Reflections on her family are throughout the book and Cold-Dai lets readers know about her parents in eldercare. And then the news that her father has passed away at 83 from complications of COVID-19. In the end, Cole-Dai acknowledges COVID-19’s “incalculable harm,” as well as: “You have deepened the urgency I’ve always felt to ease distress and suffering, to imagine a world better than this, to help bridge from here to there. May my species soon learn, at the very least, to intelligently coexist with the virus you’ve brought us.”
Story Circle Book Reviews thanks Mary Ann Moore for this review.
September 17, 2021
A beautiful book that will touch your soul. Thank you, Phyllis Cole-Dai.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews