The Second Bucket List

The Second Bucket List is a poignant and uplifting story about the emotional and spiritual journey of a forty-nine year old woman who is diagnosed with ALS.

Celeste loves life –- her husband Ross; her college-age children, Darby and Ginger; her black labs and raucous chickens; and her new career as a psychotherapist. She loves the rugged mountains that surround her home in Gardiner, Montana, gateway to Yellowstone National Park. But her diagnosis forces her to face the inevitable loss of everything that matters to her.

A startling dream leads Celeste to a therapist who helps her explore her dreams and long-neglected beliefs about life and death. Celeste creates a bucket list and tries to complete everything on the list but finds she cannot. As her symptoms worsen, she comes to accept her approaching death and creates a second bucket list, in the hope that when she dies her soul will return to earth in a new body.

The Second Bucket List takes an unflinching look at what it's like to live with a terminal illness. It also offers understanding, comfort, and hope for readers whose own loved ones are struggling with a terminal illness.

Connie Myslik-McFadden has been a writer, Jungian-oriented psychotherapist, and energy healer for many years, first in Princeton, N.J. and for the past twenty-five years in Bozeman, Montana. She leads dreamwork groups and has offered Gathering the Soul in the Wilderness retreats for women since 2003. Her books include Gathering the Soul: A True Story of Spiritual Healing; Imago; Bad Gramma, and Willow's Gift.

Hospice volunteering has been part of her life for the past several years. She loves to hike and cross-country ski on the mountain trails surrounding Bozeman, and in Yellowstone National Park.