Growing Wings
“What a shock! As I started writing, things took a radical turn. I started digging. I started searching. I started waking up and telling the truth.”
Nationally known artist Kristen Jongen thought she had overcome life’s toughest hurdles. A mother of three, Kristen believed she was in a stable marriage, and financially secure. Until one day, her world exploded and she was left to raise her family on her own and forced to embark on a new career. “Growing Wings” is Jongen’s artistic and literary chronicle of her journey back from the depths of despair and into an unexpected, fulfilling new life as an entrepreneur, artist and mother.
“Growing Wings” will help anyone going through one of life’s many transitions. Jongen writes with brutal yet inspirational honesty about the ups and downs of living, losing, and facing the unexpected. A lively, humorous and inspiring read, the book contains Jongen’s artistic representations of each phase of her journey. “Growing Wings” is an excellent example of how the human spirit must survive
and thrive even in the darkest times.
Attempting Flight
“I am learning to trust that there is a different kind of peace in moments gathered only on the ground. This suit of wings is pretty cool.
It’s getting comfy. I always knew I was a butterfly; I was only confused on the type.”
In this sequel to her enormously popular first work, “Growing Wings,” Internationally-known artist and author Kristen Jongen continues the artistic and literary chronicle of her life’s journey.
“Attempting Flight” is written in Jongen’s characteristically raw and candid style. Juggling her new roles as a single mother of three and busy entrepreneur, Jongen struggles with issues of abandonment and self-esteem. Coping with the stigma of her daughter’s chronic illness and with her own hospitalization for a life-threatening yet surprisingly common condition, she perseveres – gaining perspective in unexpected gestures of love, finding humor in embarrassing moments, and enjoying new confidence from her conscious efforts to fly. Her personal life is juxtaposed against the clarity of her painted images. Both act as a doorway to the inner sanctum of her struggles in life: love, children
