Inner Strength--the start

In the most desperate time of my life, sometime in November or December 2014 when I was alone taking care of my wife Yan who had terminal cancer and meanwhile worrying about my mom who was in a massive stroke, I made a phone call to my friend Dira in New Zealand. In the conversation, she mentioned a book titled the Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle. While on my cell I was passing by this very small bookstore Dymocks which happened to have the book. I bought it. Here is how it starts:
“A beggar had been sitting by the side of road for over thirty years. One day a stranger walked by. “Spare some change?” mumbled the beggar, mechanically holding out his old baseball cap. “I have nothing to give you, “said the stranger. Then he asked: “what’s that you are sitting on?” “Nothing,” replied the beggar. “Just an old box. I have been sitting on it for as long as I can remember.” “Ever looked inside?” asked the stranger. “No,” said the beggar. “What’s the point? There’s nothing in there.” “Have a look inside,” insisted the stranger. The beggar managed to pry open the lid. With astonishment, disbelief, and elation, he saw that the box was filled with gold……I am that stranger who has nothing to give you and who is telling you to look inside. Not inside any box, as in the parable, but somewhere even closer: inside yourself”
Holding the book, for some reason I wasn’t quite clear, I broke in tears. Now I know why, my house has just crashed, disaster has just happened, and I got no help from family or relatives, and we are alone in Hong Kong….the fate has been forced on me, the hurricane storm of life has come, the way of cross has been waiting for me as they said…..With all these, I myself is the only force standing with me…..I have to be strong…inside.
I have since read the book 5 times as reading itself is therapeutic. I am so grateful to Dira and Tolle. How much strength do I draw from the book? Just holding it gives me peace….