Resilience
Faith, Focus, Triumph
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4.6 • 14 Ratings
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- $13.99
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- $13.99
Publisher Description
Resilience. It’s not just the title of Alonzo Mourning’s stirring memoir; it’s the stuff he’s made of. Whether petitioning himself into foster care as an eleven-year-old, tirelessly studying his way onto the dean’s list at Georgetown University, making it as an all-star center in the NBA, or returning to peak form after organ-transplant surgery, Mourning has shown enormous inner strength. His faith, his determination, and his courage are what have driven and sustained him throughout his extraordinary life.
In 2000, Mourning was on top of the world: He had a fat new contract, an Olympic gold medal, and a second beautiful child–all that and the fame and wealth he had earned playing the game he loved. But in September of that year, he was diagnosed with a rare and fatal kidney disease. Over the next couple of years, as his health faltered, he retired, unretired, and retired again–and sought to make sense of the rest of his life.
Finally in 2003, after a frantic search for a donor match, Mourning had a new kidney and a new outlook. He vowed to make this second chance count by dedicating his life to others. He resolved that he would consider the disease a blessing, a revelation of God’s plan for him.
Although he battled his way back to the NBA, winning a championship with the Miami Heat in 2006, Mourning believed that the most important and fulfilling part of his life still lay ahead. Basketball, it turned out, was just the vehicle that would allow him to devote his talents and energies to a greater cause.
Alonzo Mourning’s return to basketball glory, already familiar to sports fans and non-sports fans alike, has inspired millions of patients suffering from kidney disease and living with dialysis, as well as organ donors around the world. By sharing his experiences of the physical, emotional, and spiritual roller coaster of illness and recovery, Mourning hopes to deliver a message of faith and fire, hurdles and hope, trust and triumph. Resilience is a story about the meaningful everyday lessons that he longs to share and about the things that truly matter in life.
Customer Reviews
Inspiring to young adults
This is a great book for young adults specially athletes or young professional players. It gives a great biography of Alonzo, and how the challenges of a Professional NBA All-Star player faces, from injerious and in this case a kidney disease. It demonstrate, guides and tips in so many ways that it has definelly inspired me and make me more resilient to over come troubles in life. Thank you for a great book and great knowledge. Been a US soldier I can relate to resilience and how this book gives power to those that lack a strong will and self of purpouse and initiative.
Inspiring
The day my 5 year old son was diagnosed with FSGS, his life stopped being in my control the way it had been only the night before. As a way of dealing and coping with the new, harsh reality of our lives, I immersed myself in reading anything and everything the Internet offered me about his disease. It was then that I realized my son now has the disease that led Alonzo Mourning to needing a kidney transplant. My research grew to reading about his struggles and triumphs with FSGS and that's when I found Resilience. I immediately purchased 5 paperback copies, to give to friends and families, and downloaded copies to my iPad and iPhone. Reading this book brought me to tears more often than I can count, but not always for negative reasons, more often it was because of the connection I felt with Alonzo Mourning in his work giving back to the communities that touched his life. As a high school English teacher, I decided to purchase more copies of the book to have on hand in my classroom for my students to read for pleasure. There are SO MANY LESSONS to be learned through the reading of Resilience, and I can NOT wait to have my students learn them. The struggles Alonzo pushed through to achieve success will be some that many of my kids have encountered, but succumbed to instead of fighting through. I believe that his story will give them the strength and determination to believe in themselves and in the value of education, even IF they don't have that support coming from their own families.
This story has given me hope and faith for my own son's future. He is young, with his whole life ahead of him, and though we don't have millions of dollars to get the best doctors, we have the ability to gain knowledge about his disease and stop at NOTHING to battle it. While doing so, we will hold fundraisers and do walks to increase awareness and knowledge about FSGS and Nephrotic Syndrome. Even if my son is not a direct recipient of the results of research that our fundraising helps to fund, someone else's son or daughter WILL be....and that is something I CAN control.