How we view life’s inevitable setbacks can have a profound effect on our overall well-being. After all, crumbling under the weight of disappointment isn’t nearly as productive as finding a way to be happy with a new reality — even when that reality is beyond anything we could have imagined.
Michaela Renee Johnson was just 12 years old in 1992 when a financial slump forced her family to move from an upscale area in Sacramento to a 27-ft trailer in the Sierra Nevada mountain range, with no electricity or running water — so no Nintendo or MTV. It wasn’t exactly the life that every adolescent dreams of, but it was, in fact, their reality.
Michaela chronicles these formative years (and beyond) in her often humorous, constantly candid true story, Teetering on Disaster. As the young Michaela navigates her way through the inherently melodramatic teen years, she must come to terms with relieving herself in the woods, shaving with a 10-cent borrowed razor in an irrigation ditch and taking what she called “bird baths” with a jug of water.
Somehow, in the midst of disorienting change, she learned to focus on what she was gaining instead of what she had lost. And in the end, she gained profound wisdom about her family and the world around her, and uncovered the truth about her own ability to thrive in the face of life’s inconveniences.
But the effects of her unorthodox upbringing don’t end at adulthood, and Teetering takes readers along as a grown Michaela stumbles upon a few “Mr. Right Nows,” gets divorced in her twenties, and ends up right back where she started: a small mountain town in the middle of nowhere.
Teetering on Disaster is a heartfelt, coming-of-age story written to inspire others to live a courageous life of authenticity and to speak their truth with grace. Michaela’s book is an unapologetically honest, authentic tale that will make readers laugh out loud and cry — sometimes at the same time.
Award-winning author Michaela Renee Johnson is a licensed psychotherapist and small business owner who hosts the weekly podcast, Be You Find Happy, which is an iTunes Top 100 in Self Care and has had celebrity guests such as Sanni McCandless (Free Solo) and Janusz Pozniak (Blown Away on Netflix), as well as Instagram Influencers like @missholldoll and @everchanginghorizon. She lives in Northern California with her husband and son.
She enjoys traveling and has visited 19 countries; she loves the ocean and everything in it. She rarely finds herself without an activity, whether it be hiking, yoga, tinkering in the garden, golfing, reading or spending time outside. She loves poetic quotes and all things metaphysical. To learn more about the author, visit www.michaelarenee.com or connect with her on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/usjohnsons/.
Teetering on Disaster
Publisher: MJ Innovations
Released: January 2019
ISBN-13: 978-0578430805
ISBN-10: 0578430800
Available from Amazon.com
