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My favorite reads...
As many of you know, I’ve been through the mill health-wise. I used to have a page titled “On Illness and Recovery,” but as even more has happened since I wrote that, I decided to leave the details behind and focus this page instead on some reading materials that have helped me not only survive, but thrive. They’re all available at Amazon.
Here’s what’s currently on my nightstand. The first two books may give the impression I’m a devote Catholic, but I’m not. The Church actually considers the second book here heresy. These are just wonderful books for the soul, regardless of your religion or lack thereof.
The Writings of Florence Scovel Shinn — This book, quite simply, changed my life. Shinn wrote in the 1920s, long before there was such a thing as a self-help book, and what a self-help book this is. It’s Christian-based, but if you substitute the word “Christ” with your deity of choice, or simply the words “the universe,” it will have the same meaning. Basically she says this: that what we think, what we feel, the actual words we choose in our minds is exactly what we manifest in our lives. When I started practicing her teachings, I was shocked to see how quickly they worked. Her ideas aren’t necessarily new, but her frank post-Victorian language is a delight, as is her practical application. I’ve given this book out to about a dozen people, who have in turn purchased her books for their friends. When you read her, you’ll realize that what she’s saying is something you always knew was profoundly true, but you’d never put it into words. This particular volume contains all four of her books, and at $11 at Amazon, you really can’t go wrong.
The Gospel of Mary Magdalene, translated by and commentary by Jean-Yves Leloup — Few people know that in 1945, additional gospels to the four in the Bible were found in Nag Hammadi, Egypt, right around the time the Dead Sea Scrolls were also found. But even fewer people know that in 1896, the gospel of Mary Magdalene came to light in Cairo. I’m shocked at how modern it sounds, as she speaks of “the teacher within,” much in the same way that Shinn speaks of “the Christ within.” And Leloup’s text commentary is breathtakingly insightful. It’s hard to choose a quote from this book that will give you a hint of what’s inside, but this should do: “No matter where we travel in our searching, if the message we find is authentic, it will send us right back to ourselves.”
Deep Survival: Who Lives, Who Dies and Why by Laurence Gonzales — I’ve often wondered how it is that I’ve survived some health biggies, and this book has given me some amazing answers, again reinforcing something I’ve known all along, but never consciously spoke of, which is this: We must relinquish control over catastrophe in order to achieve it, but we're not necessarily gaining control over our situation, which, of course, is often out of our hands. The type of control we master is of the truer sort — the realization that no matter what happens, even death, it's all really okay if we've been able to see just how precious and astounding life really is, and if we know, in our hearts, that we've lived our dreams. In that sense, illness—or anything catastrophic—ends up being a gift. He also spins some wild adventure yarns about those lost at sea or stranded in impossible situations, so it’s a real page-turning read in addition to being a profoundly insightful book. (I wrote a review of it on Amazon.)
Check back often to see what I’m reading next! I was given “Chaos” and “The Holographic Universe” for Christmas (thanks, Janet!), so I’ve got a lot ahead of me. |
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good reads |
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m u s i c. m i s c h i e f. a r t. |
