Not by Accident

A nearly fatal riding accident forces a young woman to examine just what it is inside herself-and other people-that invites carelessness and injury.

"God touches us with a feather to get our attention. Then, if we don't listen, he starts throwing bricks."

While leading her horse across a narrow creek in the canyons of California, Samantha Dunn suffered a life-threatening accident as her horse inadvertently jumped on her leg, splitting it open and severing vital muscles and veins. Had a stranger not happened upon the scene, it's doubtful she would have survived.

This wasn't the first such incident-although it was the most serious-in a life filled with carelessness, risk-taking, and injuries. In this reflective yet humorous memoir, Dunn takes the reader through the stages of her long and painful recovery, the most important of which involved serious self-examination. A pattern of accidents, she learned, indicates other deeper issues bubbling below the surface. This last, near-fatal episode was a subconscious wake-up call to pay attention to everything she had been looking away from: her horse, who had shown clear signs of panic, and especially her complicated past and home life-including her seriously troubled marriage.

Dunn got back on the horse-literally and figuratively. How she did it makes for an entertaining, touching, and insightful book, memoir at its best.