THE TIME TRAVELER'S WIFE

The Time Traveler's Wife movie came out just as I had finished reading the book. I wondered, "should I see the movie or stay with my great reading experience?" At first Henry and Clare Detamble look like a normal couple living in Chicago's Lincoln Park neighborhood. Henry works at a Library and Clare is an artist. The characters are very "real" people, described with great love and detail. The cruel reality is that Henry is a prisoner of time traveling. It sweeps him back and forth (without being able to direct it), from the present to the past, with no regard for where he is or what he is doing.

It drops him naked and vulnerable into another date and place, where his sudden naked appearance often gets him in trouble. The first time Clare Detamble saw Henry being dropped stark naked into her parents' meadow was when she was only six. Henry was always the perfect gentleman and gave young Clare nothing but his friendship as he switched in and out of her life. She knew that Henri would become her husband and waited with great anticipation for that day to arrive.

The events are sequenced in such a way that you still witness each character's growth as a person, as well as discover many surprises along the way. Clare and Henry's story is a great love story. This book also addresses questions about the appropriateness of gene therapy, and the essence of being human. I could not stop reading this story and immediately accepted the time travel aspect completely, this only proves how well written this book is.

XOMO

THE PLACES THAT SCARE YOU

A few months ago I promised myself to do at least one scary thing every week. When I found "The Places That Scare You" I thought this book could be a scary thing as well. The subtitle: "A guide to Fearlessness in Difficult Times" became the missing dot on the "i" I had been looking for. Most people have a hard time these days, I lost my job in June of this year and there are no more savings left. We lost our house in foreclosure. we had our piece of this sour, overcooked, bad economy pie.

What I've learned (and became more aware of) from Pema Chödrön is that you still have a choice. You can let the circumstances harden you, upset you, make you bitter, resentful and afraid, but you can also use it (welcome it!) as a tool to grow and become stronger. Until now, I've always had a hard time to grasp the concept that we are one, I just could not "believe" that I am part of others and they are part of me, certainly not the extreme figures that terrorize our planet.

But when she describes the process of training in the three difficulties (part of the "lojong slogans") she hit a string in me that was never touched before: "...we could recognize that there are millions who are feeling the way we are..." I "know" now I am part of all because what I can feel and think is what others can feel and think. I wish for myself to be free of confusion and limiting habitual reactions.

Recognizing my own confusion with compassion makes it possible to extend that compassion to others who are equally confused. The practice of Bodhichitta (Chitta means 'mind' and also 'heart' or 'attitude'. Bodhi means 'awake', enlightened' or completely open'.) provides us all with tremendous insight, clarity, and peace. "Even at times when we feel most stuck, we are never alienated from the awakened state." Buddha

"Those who train in awakening unconditional and relative bdhichitta are called bodhisattvas or warriors (nonagressive), these are men and women who are willing to train in the middle of the fire. Training in the middle of fire can mean that warrior bodhisattvas enter challenging situations in order to alleviate suffering." This connects directly to an aspect that Martha Beck describes in her book "Steering by Starlight", she calls it "the ring of fire". I'll get back to that in a next posting.

"In joy and sorrow all are equal,
Thus be guardian of all, as of yourself."
Shantideva

All is well, MO

GOT TIME?

PFFFF! I have so much to do...and I love it! I am working on a new very exciting website, logo's for my new businesses, jewelry for my shop YOXOMO at Etsy.com, writing articles for my 5 blogs and currently reading 6 books!

So hopefully I'll have several new book reviews for you in the coming days and weeks. I am reading: The Places That Scare You by Pema Chödrön, Steering by Starlight by Martha Beck, The Tao of Pooh by Benjamin Hoff, Teaching Meditation to Children by David Fontana and Ingrid Slack, and The Alphabet Versus the Goddess by Leonard Shlain. In case you were wondering: yes I always read several books at the same time, one by one of course! :-)