At some point in our lives, we all face the question: Does crisis and pain propel us forward or put our lives on hold?

In this deeply intimate memoir, Jacqueline Camacho Ruiz shares the eight hidden secrets — the fig factors as she calls them — of discovering true awareness and embracing life’s big sky possibilities, even amidst our greatest struggles. The Fig Factor is an emotionally-charged story spanning two countries and three decades. Ruiz expertly takes our hand and invites us to walk with her.

We begin in her homeland of Mexico as she recounts her mother’s unrelenting faith in giving birth to a little girl, the good that came from the arsonist’s flames devouring her childhood home, and the life-changing discovery she encountered after watching her father walk away again and again with a bottle in his hand. Her immigration to the United States as a young teenager and the amazing medical discovery that both saved her life while nearly taking it away offer true inspiration that the human spirit dictates triumph in the lives of everyday people.

Ruiz clearly touches our hearts in this beautifully written, very personal memoir, showing us how to find more to every moment of living through love, awareness, forgiveness, gratitude, and more. Each chapter is capped off with thought-provoking questions underscoring Ruiz’s real message: The answers to life’s greatest questions lie within each of us.