Thank You Heartbreak

Life for Maria Leonard Olsen, attorney and author of 50 After 50: Reframing the Next Chapter of Your Life, pretty much fell apart as she approached her 50th year. She had drank her way out of a 25-year marriage, found herself completely codependent on her two children, whose trust she had lost due to her alcoholism, was a new empty nester, and was forced to reenter the work force to support herself financially after a 15 year hiatus playing supermom. It was her rudderlessness, however, that incentivized her to change her life for good. And change she did. Now 6 1/2 years sober, Maria opens up with immense honesty about how the various trauma and heartbreaks she endured—recovery from addiction, sexual abuse, divorce, empty nesting, racism, codependency, parental death, and being raised as a latchkey kid—impacted her character and how her call, ultimately, toward sobriety, mentorship, and adventure helped her cultivate an attitude of gratitude, forge new neural pathways, drop the perfectionism shtick, regain he