book reviews

read, watch, listen this week

May 15, 2019

Friends, I have enjoyed some fantastic input lately. From books and online articles and from Netflix to podcasts, the Universe is feeding me mightily. Here are some highlights. I would love to know what you’re soaking up, too!

Kim Swims, a Netflix documentary. I thoroughly enjoyed this. Treadmill miles click by so easily when I am watching anything about an athlete with gobs more endurance than me, and this lady certainly qualifies, wow! Kim Chambers was a ballerina who suffered a traumatic leg injury then discovered a passion for distance swimming and has been setting records since. The program follows her training and recent attempt to swim to a group of shark infested islands about 30 miles off of San Francisco. It teaches a lot about the sport of open water swimming (did you know this is the genesis of the term “Oceans Seven?”) and chronicles Kim’s personal grit and appetite for accomplishment. I loved it. Plus, she is from New Zealand so that entire afternoon after watching her story I walked around the farm speaking to the animals in my best fake Kiwi accent, ha.

Heads up: There is a surprise scene when Kim’s graphic injuries are shown pretty clearly. It was gory and startling. I literally jumped and yelped on the treadmill, ha!

Blue Like Jazz by Donald Miller. Miller writes about Christian Spirituality, a genre which I did not know existed, per se, before reading this book, but with which I whole-heartedly identify.

The truths of the Bible were magic, like messages from heaven, like codes, enchanting codes that offered power over life, a sort of power that turned sorrow to joy, hardship to challenge, and trial to opportunity.

In Blue Like Jazz, Miller shares his evolving relationship with God and with “church” and society at large. It’s a kind of spiritual coming of age story. He is simultaneously lofty with his ideas and downright funny. I would describe his writing style as a nice mix of Bob Goff’s affability and C.S Lewis’ seriousness, with some hippie-scented irreverence thrown in. I finished the book last week and keep returning to my notes to soak up certain passages more deeply. My biggest takeaway? Connection. Human connection is vital. We are designed to act as conduits for God’s perfect Love. It is possible, even though we on our own can only love each other imperfectly. Connection, connection, connection. Beautiful stuff!

Mom & Me & Mom by Maya Angelou: I snagged this book (and one other) at a very cool book store in downtown Los Angeles, for about three dollars each.

I had been hearing about Mom & Me & Mom plenty and thought that reading it near Mother’s Day would be perfect. Man, I really wanted to love it. Maya Angelou has always provided such poetry to her generation, you know? And elegance? But this book was disappointing. I ended up feeling physically ill while progressing through the final chapters, the parts of the author’s life when you might expect relief and redemption to feel really good. Instead of healing, it felt more like glorifying dysfunction. Clearly this review says more about me than it does the book (maybe I have some healing of my own to do), but there it is. I did not enjoy reading it. But I am still glad to have finished it.

Here is what I shared with some Facebook friends. If you have read the book I would treasure your input, whether we agree or not!

It sat uncomfortably with me mostly because she seemed to grow not only more confident (would have been a good thing) but also more… I don’t know. Happy with the dysfunction in her family rather than resilient to it. And her long series of stories celebrated racism and made a joke of violence or the threat of it. I have always lapped up her eloquence and regarded her as someone with wisdom, but after reading this I feel like she has just lorded over people with wealth and controlled people with illusions about her power (not the same as confidence, to me). It all just made me so sad. Enduring a troubled childhood with trauma is actually pretty common. She just did not rise above it with as much love and grace as her reputation always had me believe. I am so sorry if that sounds horrible. It’s just how the memoir impacted me. Her writing was clean and propelling though, so I plowed through it in less than 2 days. She had it pruned back better than I could ever hope to do. And I did plenty of highlighting of beautiful turns of phrase, so I do not mean to diminish her actual writing skills. Just, I guess, her life/character/personality? Ehhh that makes it worse. Sorry.

Oprah’s podcast interview with Tara Westover, author of Educated: I already knew, from my sister Gen and her best friend Julia, some of what to expect from the book itself; but when I struck out for an easy run and hit play on Oprah’s Super Soul podcast, the author’s voice only made me want to read her memoir more. She is young but calm and wise. She is damaged but somehow disconnected from the damage. At once eloquent and pragmatic. She was enthralling. I have since started reading the hardback Gen loaned to me and will report back soon (can scarcely put it down), but in the mean time if you have half an hour or so, give this a listen.

Jess over at Roots and Refuge continues to inspire. Her casual country vegetable gardens and her open-heartedness are just so contagious. And she is admirably knowledgeable, too. Are you following her on You Tube or Instagram yet? I think she has a cult following, judging from her Facebook friends group, but it’s a happy cult. Like, not the kind you need to leave and call your Dad over. Just a cult about creative vegetable gardens with trellis arches and tomatoes and maybe dairy goats. Also lots of sunflowers. A very good cult.

One more offering from Oprah! She hosts Brene Brown, who speaks on the anatomy of trust. So good, friends. And no kidding, I wept while running slowly and listening to this podcast episode. The story about her (then) third grade daughter and her young friends who had earned or lost her trust, the marble jar, grandparents, all of it, it got me right in my heart in the best way. Since listening to this I have been ruminating plenty over trust, marble jars, and intimate friendships. Good stuff. Love and intimacy built in small moments. Find it and listen! Oh this reminds me to find the study on “sliding door moments” and maybe a Gwenyth Paltrow movie by that title? Are you familiar with either?

Piggybacking by accident, another Brene Brown selection, this time her Netflix special, A Call to Courage: Handsome and I watched it together at the end of a fun, overstuffed Mother’s Day weekend. It has some repeat material if you have followed her for a while; but it has some fresh stuff too and a consistent message about vulnerability and just showing up for life. I bet she and Des Linden would click nicely.

Okay, that’s it for today! I have some yard work to finish before settling in again with Educated. Stories from our Mother’s Day weekend plus a fun recap of my trip to Los Angeles will be posted later this week. What are you reading and watching? Tell me everything!

“I always thought the Bible
was more of a salad thing,
but it isn’t.
It’s a chocolate thing.”
~Donald Miller
XOXOXOXO

daybreak today and the happy residue of our friday night gathering

November 3, 2018

Around 7:15 this morning Klaus and I went outside to feed everyone breakfast and to bear witness to daybreak. The inky black sky and diamond moon an hour earlier had whispered promises of an exceptional display, and we were not disappointed.

The eastern sky cracked open and gushed Technicolor all over the farm. All over the prairie grasses and wildflowers, the pine trees and blackjacks and zinnias and eerily decaying summer vines. Something I’ll never capture in a snapshot. That molten energy rushed through the treetops, scattered leaves both downhill and up, and transformed the pond into a pink and orange looking glass. The already dazzling crazy quilt of autumn leaves was for several moments downright metallic. Glittered. And still, the sun was just rising, barely.

Almost forty five minutes later, as I sat outside scribbling this in my notebook, broad gashes of light were streaming across the treetops and aiming west, downhill, and straight through me. It was all bold and direct, no longer diffused.

Everyone around here seems to agree that this year’s autumn transformation has been a special one. We should probably thank the lush, mild summer and gentle cool down for that. The forests and gardens have been changing daily, hourly sometimes, like a twisting handheld kaleidoscope where each leaf is a chunk of tinted glass reflecting against so many connecting mirrors.

I want my eyes and my heart to be mirrors for all of it. I want to always remember how beautiful Oklahoma was in October of 2018.

One day soon we will wake up for our usual routines and see that the trees are bare and the ground is frozen. On that day we’ll find the beauty of course, but it will be different. For now, for today, we will soak up the color and thrumming life and all of this glorious transformation energy. And we’ll count it all joy because it’s so easy. It’s so available to us.

Last night four friends joined us at the farm for a cozy dinner and to finally discuss The Book of Joy. It was a small, organic mix of deeply thinking, tender, feeling people who had either already enjoyed the book or who were interested in it based on piecemeal reviews I had been posting on Facebook for months.

The Book of Joy is just so nourishing, you guys. I highly recommend this slim, straightforward work to people of every religion, every background, every station in life. And I strongly suggest you buy a copy to keep forever; because it seems to be the kind of book that you might read (or at least skim and review) at different times in life and each time glean new wisdom.

Our intimate discussion last night was everything my soul needed. I felt absolute Love in the midst of us all, and my brain kept sparking and coming to life every time someone shared their insights. The fact that my husband was there for it all and a strong part of the dialogue is a brand new joy for me.

I have tried to make people aware that the ultimate source of happiness is simply a healthy body and a warm heart. ~Dalai Lama

Soon, in addition to so much great material from the book, I want us to explore Ubuntu, the African expression for humanity. “We become persons through other people.” It’s the notion that connectedness is part of our human design, our nature. The idea that we function best when we find other people and live in actual community. Especially as the holiday season opens wide, I would love to really internalize this concept.

Togetherness, intimacy, connection, community.

Daybreak for our hearts and minds and bodies and spirits. Eye candy and nourishment, both. Improving our perspectives and staying aware and very very present. Yes to all of it.

I am beyond excited to continue this dialogue with my husband and our friends and their loved ones, and also with my sister Angela and maybe our adult children, as well as with our friend Kiran, who is Hindu. The diversity of our favorite humans is as mesmerizing as Oklahoma’s autumn display right now.

“The way you see the world,
the meaning you give to what you witness,
changes the way you feel.”
~Jinpa
XOXOXOXO

code red (book review & shark week talk for ladies only)

July 1, 2017

Did you catch the title of this post, that it’s intended really for ladies only? Okay, maybe also for guys who care about their women so much that they can handle some decidedly feminine-centered material. But anyway. You have been warned…xoxo

Ladies, friends and loved ones, I have discovered a school of thought that I wish I had discovered in my twenties, all about feminine health and well being, centered around our moon cycle. It’s not new exactly, in fact it’s quite ancient and completely natural; but as with so many things in life, our modern constructs have pulled us away from ancient and natural truths. How nice to take that step back and reconsider things a bit.

Almost exactly two months ago I stumbled on a new-to me-author, on a day that I had woken up surprised to feel less than great. The synchronicity of how I discovered her and the fact that it happened on that exact morning feeling the way I did, after having a certain dream about a lion, while the moon was crossing Leo, well, obviously there’s a very long version of this story. Today we will cut to the chase.

Introducing Lisa Lister, author of Code Red and much more.

Long story short, someone I respect and admire posted on Instagram about charting her own menstrual cycle and referred to Lisa Lister. I explored the author’s online posts and became more and more enthralled. She writes enthusiastically (irreverently too, haha, check her IG) about the multitude of precise and far-reaching fluctuations women experience from day to day during our cycles. And by cycle I do not just mean “The Curse.” She illustrates beautifully how those few days are just a part of the natural, full-spectrum, month-long healthy cycle, and how (this is my favorite part) a woman’s moon cycle can be viewed in four distinct seasons. Four unique ways to live, month after month. That’s a lot more interesting than just “PMS” hell followed closely by “Shark Week,” implying that the rest of the time is the only time you’re normal. Agree?

Your menstrual cycle is way more than just a biological process; it’s a cycle of ever-changing spiritual, emotional, creative energy, a road map that leads right back to the very essence of you.

Oh man. Ok you might have been reading here when I was studying the moon and its effects on farming and gardening? How ancient wisdom holds various chores and tasks as more profitable on certain days of the month, or at certain times of the year? I have been long fascinated by the powers of the waning moon compared to waxing, traditional energy grabs at the new moon, letting go of regrets at the full moon, etcetera. I already believe in this stuff. So then you see how I was so easily hooked by this train of thought about our own health.

Who is still here? Haha

So. Intrigued by her alignment with the phases of the moon and inspired by her very detailed suggestions to chart lots more than just the worst days of each month, I immediately downloaded the electronic version of her book, Code Red. I consumed it greedily and printed the circular chart she provides to begin my own experiment.

Some context: I am 43 years old and plenty healthy. I had two wonderfully pleasant pregnancies in my twenties and have had little to no disruption of life since then, physically. I feel pretty in touch with my own thoughts and feelings, and I had always assumed I was knowledgeable enough about feminine health. I mean I took sex-ed in middle school, right? And later read “What to Expect When You’re Expecting?” LOL.

But this book revealed nuances I had just not considered. Lots of subtle but powerful truths that I have been struggling with since my twenties, stuff that as I read fired up light bulb moments and washed me with relief over and over again. Which is why I wish I had discovered this school of thought earlier. It’s more than just mildly comforting to know certain things are normal; it’s vital to realize you have untapped potential and actual insight available to you about your own life. It’s liberating and exciting to think of using your energy from day to day in more profitable ways, resting when needed, and behaving in sync with nature.

That right there might be my favorite theme or take away from this book: The notion that a woman’s cycle is far more (so much more) than just 4-8 days of pain and inconvenience, at best. That a woman’s cycle is, actually, a powerful and beautifully orchestrated mirror to Nature herself. Women hold unique sources of life, love, creativity and regeneration that we often neglect in favor of competing to be more masculine and independent.

Do not get me started on that.

Feminine energy is fluid, it’s not consistent.

This book offers a vivid, seductive invitation to walk away from modern (masculine) ideas about what it means to be “on your period” and instead reconnect with nature.

This is the way of the feminine and when we work with her and not against her, we actually become more productive while nourishing ourselves in the process.

Friends, even if you you choose not to read this book, here are some things I hope you will consider:

Begin charting you month with greater precision and insight. Use the circular pie chart and observe how your cycle intersects with the moon’s cycle. I have now deleted the phone app I had been using for years. It does not hold a candle to the insight available through circular charting.
Know that while you will have lots of wonderful things in common with all women throughout history, your cycle is unique. Small differences do not necessarily mean you have something wrong. (Mine, for example, is only 24 days long, which used to bother me for some reason.)
On your chart, divide your cycle into four seasons and seek to understand the swells of energies between them. Know that your mind, body, and spirit are all designed to wax and wane just like the moon, and every day has a beautiful purpose. What society calls “mood swings” is too generalized. Get in touch for real. (And by the way men have this to a degree, too, so chill baby-babies, chill.)
Allow yourself to embrace all kinds of cravings, way beyond chocolate but yes including chocolate, haha. You may notice days every month that you crave meat, raw nuts, chocolate, or later fruit, extra water, or very little at all. Some days you may crave lots of activity, other days introspection and reading. Do you have days when you can’t wait to throw a huge party, but other days, inexplicably, you can barely hold a conversation? Very natural. Resisting nature is futile, and over time it can cause some serious health problems. Learn to reconnect with yourself and to live more fluidly, even if it means rejecting modern constructs and ignoring some cultural nonsense.
Take a deep breath and be really happy that you’re a woman. (I could talk for hours about this and know many women who hate being women, which I do not understand, except that our culture has made it so weird to embrace true femininity.) If you are healthy, be especially grateful for that. If you have some health obstacles, know that you have lots of power to heal yourself.

I have been secretly pushing this book and its charting advice onto some girlfriends, anyone who will listen, who I think might be receptive to these ideas. Why secretly? Why do they seem so radical? Mostly because the author’s vernacular has kind of a pagan flavor. She writes freely about tarot cards (definitely not my thing, ask my husband how I cope with New Orleans) and refers heavily to the divine feminine (I know this contradicts traditional Christian thinking). But it’s all just semantics around a worthwhile topic.

I strongly urge all of my beloved women, at any age, to explore this. Try this approach on for size and see if it fits for you. She offers an ocean of nourishing thought and lots of research into ancient cultures to demonstrate how practices have changed over time. So interesting! In the book, each of the four “seasons” is celebrated for its super powers and unique opportunities. And each of those chapters comes stocked with special encouragements on how to make the most of that time. Ideas of how to work with nature, not against Her. I just love that!

We ignore our deepest needs as women because we no longer trust that we know ourselves better than anyone else.

I read the book cover to cover in those first couple of days, and I began my own charting experiment immediately. Since then I have been re-reading each little section as my own cycles ebb and flow, and it’s been so helpful. I’m already a pretty heavy journal keeper, but you might not believe how much understanding this has provided me. Moods and energy, tolerance for dishonesty or falseness, overall friendships and deeper relationships, sex and domestic stuff, ambitions, even my running! It’s been eye opening to say the least, and having the visual circular representation of each month is just plain fascinating.

One more thought to share: Not everything in this book is bent toward the mystical. She includes plenty of science and talk about hormones, too, but in really precise explanations. She zeroes in, for example, on what is happening on day 3 or day 22, on the relationship between testosterone and estrogen, all of it. So amazing. I love understanding the body better!

Please share your thoughts! Have you read this book yet, or have you ever seen her online posts? What do you think of viewing your own cycle like phases of the moon, does it make sense to you? Does it alleviate some of the pressure or does it reveal some things that had been mysterious?

from Everyday Tao: Living With Balance and Harmony

I hope that some of you do explore this school of thought and get back with me. I hope it is helpful to you, because it certainly has been to me. As always, the more closely we can live with nature, the better. And the healthier and happier we are as women, the better off our families and communities will be.

Ok. Gotta go now, thank you so much for checking in!

XOXOXOXO

endurance diet (book review)

May 23, 2017

Hey friends, happy Motivation/ Marathon Monday! This week I have an on-topic book for you to consider: The Endurance Diet by Matt Fitzgerald.

I’ve been lauding it on Facebook and Instagram for a few weeks, and my husband and friends have endured (get it?) my overflowing commentary since reading it. Thought it was time to begin laying out my thoughts.

Whether you are…

a long distance runner or other type of endurance athlete,
a curious exerciser who wants to finally figure out the nutrition part of the wellness puzzle,
an exhausted dieter who is pretty much DONE with diet culture,
or someone who lives with and loves such a person,

…you have a lot to gain from reading this slim book.

First, let’s clarify that despite its title this book is not really a “diet book,” not in the traditional trendy fad/ quick weight loss/ make some money and sell some protein shakes kind of way. It’s all science and anthropology. Just a smart collection and analysis of best practices, eating habits that have coincidentally been working well for the world’s most successful endurance athletes. The author is a professional running coach and sports nutritionist and early on takes great pains to explain his research process. I groove this.

I stumbled onto The Endurance Diet by accident. During those weeks I was injured and taking a frustrated break from running, I listened to a podcast about dealing with and preventing injuries like mine, and the author happened to be the guest that day. He and the host just grabbed my attention. They dovetailed into a conversation about eating well to support the hard work of training, and how the elites do it all. I listened raptly, took notes between ironing my husband’s shirts, and once the book was mentioned, excitedly ordered it. Paperback, so I could write notes in it, because Know thyself, right? Ha.

As soon as the book arrived in our turquoise mailbox I cracked it open and could scarcely put it down until the final page. It was a pleasant, head-nodding read, largely I think because of the variety in each chapter. Fitzgerald mixes an array of instruction and bullet points, scientific explanation, personal anecdotes, and case studies about actual endurance athletes from all around the globe. That last part was so much fun. I got a big kick out of learning little bits abut other cultures’ food options, morning drink rituals, native grains and farming traditions, etcetera. Fascinating stuff. As I read the stories about other people’s experiences (injury and recovery, weight gain and how they fixed it, depletion versus vitality), deep thoughts and life lessons started clicking into place. I actually looked back at my old running journals and saw lots of similar observations. I noticed familiar lines about how certain modes of eating and exercising had made me feel and perform, both the good and the bad. It was all highly relatable.

OKC marathon 2015, aka “The Crying Games” because my body had revolted against my combination of dieting for weight loss and marathon training. Look at my sweet friends.

This is a point worth stressing: The fact that a below-average exerciser like me can glean the same wisdom offered to elite competitors is cool. Fitzgerald writes repeatedly that what is good for the highest level athlete is also good for most people’s general health and well being. These are not extreme-condition pieces of advice. I love that.

One of the most valuable themes throughout The Endurance Diet is the gentle pressing of a positive food ethos. The inside-out importance of seeing food as not only fuel (of course it is) but also pleasure and a means of connection (of course it is!). The key ingredient, he teaches, is trusting your own body and its complex regulating systems, which, once healed from misuse, will always be more reliable than any external plan or set of rules.

This articulation has been a long time coming for me. I don’t think I have had an eating disorder, not truly, but I have for years tortured my mind and body with negative thinking and unsustainable rules. If this book has had a single measurable benefit for me, it could simply be escape from calorie counting once and for all. I’ll keep you posted.

So. I am not pushing a “diet to lose weight” book onto my friends. Pinky promise. I am suggesting a book aimed at relearning the power of natural nutrition for endurance sports and the amazing (almost magical) ways our own bodies can regulate and heal themselves. I’m really excited to have found a simpler way to view this part of the big wellness puzzle and am hopeful that I can take another stab at long distance running without making those weird mistakes I made in 2015.

Okay. If you’re still with me, here are some specific takeaways:

The book offers habits, not rules, and just 5 of them:

Eat everything.
Eat quality.
Eat carb-centered.
Eat enough.
Eat individually.

The book reinforces the myriad benefits of a good cardiovascular exercise program, whether you are a competitive athlete, an “age-grouper,” or a health-conscious human being:

reduces body fat levels
strengthens the heart
improves circulation
helps the body absorb and adapt to stress
improves metabolic efficiency
sharpens the nervous system
boosts muscular fatigue resistance

The book identifies “endurance super foods,” though the author balks at such labels. The list of 22 items was accessible, too, plus affordable. I feel so grateful to naturally crave good-for-you nourishment! Seventeen of the foods already make constant rotation here in our kitchen, and only one of these 22 foods was foreign to me, Teff.

almonds
bananas
beets
black beans
brown rice
cherries
coffee
corn
eggs
garlic
olive oil
peanut butter
potatoes
red wine
salmon (or lox)
spinach
sweet potatoes
tea
Teff
tomatoes
tuna
yogurt

Every part of the book makes a big deal out of individualizing your plan, listening to your own body daily, and honoring your actual daily needs, personal chemistry, happiness, and health above and beyond any external motivations. This is huge. I appreciate this so much, as it is something my husband and I (and recently some good friends) had already been discussing for months.

I mentioned the exciting possibility that this book may have nudged me once and for all away from calorie-counting. What the author offers as a stand-in might be of interest to you, though I actually feel relaxed and informed enough now to move forward without it: Fitzgerald separates foods into “high-quality” and “low-quality” and then into sub-categories for each. From there he offers a scoring system that helps you evaluate your daily eats then zero in on ways to make smart substitutions. He sells a phone app, if you’re interested, too. Each food group is worth up to 2 points depending on how often you eat it that day, and the maximum score is something like 28.

High-quality Foods:

Vegetables
Fruits
Nuts, seeds, & oils
Unprocessed meats & seafood
Whole grains
Dairy

Low-Quality Foods, largely made popular during the Industrial Era:

Refined grains
Sweets
Processed meats
Fried foods

(You know, if I continue sharing all of my many notes, this review will end up being longer than the book itself. Ha.)

If you are a long-distance runner, swimmer, or cyclist and this topic is interesting to you, I highly encourage you to read this book. A lot of the content seems like common sense, and Fitzgerald himself admits that; but it is gathered in a compelling way and is supported by all kinds of satisfying explanation.

I feel so refreshed to understand now precisely why certain efforts have failed. I feel excited to test out less dieting and more intuitive eating. Motivated to view my food as absorption for challenging workouts.

I will check back in after a month or so of this effort and let you know how I feel. In the midst of it all I am training for a trail half marathon, too, so I am really happy about the prospect of feeling great during these coming weeks. (Upcoming post on injury recovery and some little things that have helped!)

Gotta go. Thanks so much for sticking it out through a super long book review! If you read The Endurance Diet, let me know what you think!

“…but in the real world, the healthiest and fittest people,
including elite endurance athletes, follow a few basic rules of eating
and let the details take care of themselves.”
~Matt Fitzgerald
XOXOXOXO

the noticer (book review)

February 12, 2017

My dear old book club friend Melissa now works at the Commish with Handsome. She and another book-loving coworker Janice were recently discussing worthy reading titles within earshot of my guy and landed on something that was eventually loaned to me via my non-reading husband. That’s a lot of info you don’t really need. I do however want you to know all about the book itself.

Okay.

It’s called The Noticer and it’s written by Andy Andrews who is also apparently the well known author of The Traveler’s Gift and a widely celebrated corporate speaker.

This book is just 156 short, sweet, soothing pages of easy story telling. Nothing too cerebral. Nothing too terribly painful, though while reading my heartstrings were tugged plenty. (I only cried twice, which is not much for me.) The book is a nice spiritual refreshment but neither religious nor preachy. Motivational but not overbearingly so. I was hooked in the first few pages and immediately felt familiar strains from books like The Shack, A Return to Love, The Secret, a book by Mitch Albom (The Five People You Meet in Heaven), and more. Also, friends, my own story about the worry door.

I love echoes like these.

The Noticer message is all about perspective and how to adjust our own so that we see life and its problems and opportunities more clearly. More calmly. With greater capacity for love and growth. These are decent, useful things; and honing perspective is a skill that will serve us throughout life. As the book points out in various conversations, everyone is constantly in close relationship with crisis: We are either in crisis, headed for crisis, or recovering from it. Have we not discussed that right here over and over again? And pretty recently? How comforting to remind each other that crisis is nothing special meant only for us, though it sometimes feels that way. Life is not about avoiding crises but about improving our perspective and coping skills so that we can live with more love and purpose.

The Noticer was, for me personally, a mellow touchstone for all these lessons I’ve been receiving about practicing gratitude. A brief exchange about two-thirds into the story has the fascinating main character, Jones, suggesting to a work-obsessed friend that upon waking each morning he spend ten minutes listing things in his life for which he is grateful. When I was about 28 years old my husband’s grandmother instructed me to do almost exactly the same thing. I started doing it then, and it was transformative. Even now, when I fail to physically write on paper my gratitude, just sitting quietly with my thoughts and expressing gratitude sets the tone for my day and relaxes all my tension. Sometimes I do this at night when I can’t sleep. Just using gratitude to adjust my perspective from worry to peace often puts me right into a deep, restful sleep. It’s amazing.

After all, our blessings far outweigh our problems. And focusing on them only magnifies them and magnetizes you for more of them. Don’t forget that.

Okay friends. I could sit with you and discuss this interesting, inspiring book for many hours. I hope Melissa reads it soon so we can meet for lunch and do exactly that. (hint hint lady!!) If you are looking for a quick, uplifting read, something to refresh your thinking without making you feel like you’ve just visited a church you don’t recognize, find The Noticer and let it gently suggest a better perspective. Easy peasy.

Your vision, my boy. It is incredibly cloudy at the moment, but I am certain we can clear a pathway from your head to your heart and into your future.

Thank you Melissa for thinking of me and Janice for the loan! I loved it.

Oh and by the way? Watch out for the garden seeds metaphor. You know I hated that. : )

“Keep your fork.
The best is yet to come.”
~Andy Andrews, The Noticer
XOXOXOXO

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