Review of I Do Again, by Cheryl & Jeff Scruggs

I Do Again

How We Found a Second Chance at Our Marriage — and You Can Too

by Cheryl & Jeff Scruggs

Waterbrook Press, 2008. 193 pages.
Starred Review

This book tells the story of a marriage that seemed hopelessly broken. Cheryl had an affair and divorced Jeff. But by a miracle of God, their marriage was restored seven years later, better than ever before.

The authors put it this way:

“This book is about the end of a marriage — about betrayal, disappointment, anger, and wrestling with God. But it’s also about how we found a new definition of happily ever after.

The book is intended as a message of hope, that God can do amazing things, and heal seemingly impossible breaches.

The authors now counsel married couples having difficulties, and I found their words encouraging. They say,

“We want people to be healed, and we want marriages to be healed. That’s what we pray for all the time. But we don’t know God’s plans for every couple. Our experience has taught us that God can redeem anything, so we never give up on anyone. But regardless of which direction they go, we let them know that we love them and support them and that God loves them no matter what. If you are in this circumstance, we’d advise you to keep yourself and your children safe, diligently seek the Lord through prayer and Scripture study, obtain godly counsel, and do your best to follow God’s leading based on your understanding of him. Never forget that God loves you and he will never withhold his love even if you make a mistake.”

It’s so nice to hear this kind of story, for a change.

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Review of The Language of Letting Go, by Melody Beattie

The Language of Letting Go

by Melody Beattie

Hazelden, 1990. 393 pages.
Starred Review
Sonderbooks Stand-out 2010: #6 Other Nonfiction

The Language of Letting Go is a collection of 365 daily meditations about letting go and giving up codependency. There’s all kinds of wisdom and good thoughts here. You can tell how powerfully it spoke to me because selections from it appear over and over again on my Sonderquotes blog.

I bought this book in May 2008. I started on the date when I bought it and read through the whole year, then started at the beginning and finished out 2009. Now that I’m in 2010, I’ve bought two other books of meditations by Melody Beattie, More Language of Letting Go and Journey of the Heart. So I decided to give this book a rest, but I hope that shows how much I liked it, how often I’d find just the bit of wisdom I needed for that particular day.

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Review of The Sacred Romance, by Brent Curtis and John Eldredge

The Sacred Romance

Drawing Closer to the Heart of God

by Brent Curtis and John Eldredge

Thomas Nelson Publishers, Nashville, 1997. 229 pages.
Starred Review
Sonderbooks Stand-out 2010: #3 Other Nonfiction

This powerful book explains life as a Sacred Romance. From the first chapter:

“The inner life, the story of our heart, is the life of the deep places within us, our passions and dreams, our fears and our deepest wounds. It is the unseen life, the mystery within — what Buechner calls our “shimmering self.” It cannot be managed like a corporation. The heart does not respond to principles and programs; it seeks not efficiency, but passion. Art, poetry, beauty, mystery, ecstasy: These are what rouse the heart. Indeed, they are the language that must be spoken if one wishes to communicate with the heart. It is why Jesus so often taught and related to people by telling stories and asking questions. His desire was not just to engage their intellects but to capture their hearts.

“Indeed, if we will listen, a Sacred Romance calls to us through our heart every moment of our lives. It whispers to us on the wind, invites us through the laughter of good friends, reaches out to us through the touch of someone we love. We’ve heard it in our favorite music, sensed it at the birth of our first child, been drawn to it while watching the shimmer of a sunset on the ocean. The Romance is even present in times of great personal suffering: the illness of a child, the loss of a marriage, the death of a friend. Something calls to us through experiences like these and rouses an inconsolable longing deep within our heart, wakening in us a yearning for intimacy, beauty, and adventure.

“This longing is the most powerful part of any human personality. It fuels our search for meaning, for wholeness, for a sense of being truly alive. However we may describe this deep desire, it is the most important thing about us, our heart of hearts, the passion of our life. And the voice that calls to us in this place is none other than the voice of God.”

The authors present life as a grand Story:

“Life is not a list of propositions, it is a series of dramatic scenes. As Eugene Peterson said, “We live in narrative, we live in story. Existence has a story shape to it. We have a beginning and an end, we have a plot, we have characters.” Story is the language of the heart. Our souls speak not in the naked facts of mathematics or the abstract propositions of systematic theology; they speak the images and emotions of story. Contrast your enthusiasm for studying a textbook with the offer to go to a movie, read a novel, or listen to the stories of someone else’s life. Elie Wiesel suggests that ‘God created man because he loves stories.’ So if we’re going to find the answer to the riddle of the earth — and of our own existence — we’ll find it in story.”

But the authors also talk about “Arrows” that pierce our hearts and tell us that life is meaningless, that there is no Romance.

“This is the story of all our lives, in one way or another. The haunting of the Romance and the Message of the Arrows are so radically different and they seem so mutually exclusive they split our hearts in two. In every way that the Romance is full of beauty and wonder, the Arrows are equally powerful in their ugliness and devastation. The Romance seems to promise a life of wholeness through a deep connection with the great heart behind the universe. The Arrows deny it, telling us, ‘You are on your own. There is no Romance, no one strong and kind who is calling you to an exotic adventure.’ The Romance says, ‘This world is a benevolent place.’ The Arrows mock such naivete, warning us, ‘Just watch yourself — disaster is a moment away.’ The Romance invites us to trust. The Arrows intimidate us into self-reliance.”

This book is about the adventure of living out the Romance. It encourages you to think about your higher calling, to listen to your heart. It reminds you that your life does have meaning.

I like this sentence, which puts perspective on hard times:

“God is so confident in the good that he is willing to allow our adversary latitude in carrying out his evil intentions for the purpose of deepening our communion with himself.”

The overarching message of the book is this:

“We are the sons and daughters of God, even more, the Beloved, pursued by God himself.”

What an amazing calling!

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Review of Change Your Mind and Your Life Will Follow, by Karen Casey

Change Your Mind and Your Life Will Follow

12 Simple Principles

by Karen Casey

Conari Press, 2005. 149 pages.
Starred Review
Sonderbooks Stand-out 2010: #2 Other Nonfiction

This is a simple book about living a more peaceful and loving life. I found the thoughts presented to be profound, as you can tell by the twenty-two times I chose selections from this book for Sonderquotes.

The 12 simple principles make up the first twelve chapters, with a summary chapter at the end. Here are the principles as they are listed in the chapter titles:

1. Tend your own garden.
2. Stop focusing on problems so their solutions can emerge.
3. Let go of outcomes.
4. Change your mind.
5. Choose to act rather than react.
6. Give up your judgments.
7. Remember that you are not in control.
8. Discover your own lessons.
9. Do no harm.
10. Quiet your mind.
11. Every encounter is a holy encounter — respond accordingly.
12. There are two voices in your mind — one is always wrong.

I told you they were simple! You’ve probably heard most of these ideas before, but she helps you see how you can actually do these things, and convinces you how much it will help.

Here’s a passage I enjoyed from “Tend Your Own Garden”:

“Let’s celebrate the fact that we are in charge of no one but ourselves. It relieves us of a heavy burden, and a thankless job, one that never blesses us. Taking control of every thought we have and every action we take, and being willing to relinquish the past while savoring the present, will assuredly keep us as busy as we need to be. Doing these things, and only these things is why we are here. It’s only when we live our own lives and manage our own affairs, freeing others to do the same, that we will find the peace we seek and so deserve.”

She gives similar advice in the chapter “Choose to Act Rather Than React”:

“Minding other people’s business simply isn’t the work we are here to do, regardless of how seductive the idea may be. We each must make our own journey, and even when it appears that someone we love is making a poor decision about an important matter, unless we are asked for advice, it’s not our place to offer it. Besides, minding your own business will keep you as busy as you would ever need to be.”

In the chapter “Give Up Your Judgments,” she says:

“When I embrace the practice of unconditional love — seldom an easy exercise, I might add — I am able to see how similar I am to those around me, and my habit of judgment lessens. Please note the word ‘habit.’ Judgment does become a habit, and so can unconditional love, though it is more difficult to perfect. A tool that has worked for me (when I remember to use it) is to express a statement of unconditional love out loud every time a judgmental thought crosses my mind. Try it next time you find yourself gripped by judgment. As soon as you catch it, state your unconditional love. It works.”

Another theme of focusing on yourself, not others comes in “Remember That You Are Not In Control”:

“What we discover when we give up trying to control everybody and everything is that we suddenly have the time and opportunity to learn and change and grow within ourselves, so that we can progress to the next level of spiritual awareness that awaits us.

“A surprise benefit, too, is that by letting go, moving on, and living our own lives peacefully and with intention, we often inspire others to change in the very ways we want them to change. Ironic, isn’t it?”

From “Every Encounter Is a Holy Encounter,” we find this wise advice:

“We can never know who we really are unless we have others to interact with. Perhaps most difficult to understand, in all this, is that the people with whom we have the most difficult relationships are the ones from whom we learn the most. It is in these more fraught interactions that our minds are healed the most.

“That’s why it’s so important to choose to be grateful for every relationship. We simply cannot know what God has intended for each of them to mean in our lives. We can only be sure that they are present to help us heal.”

In the final chapter, she gives us encouragement to go out there and begin:

“How we acquire better lives is not very mysterious. It comes back to making better choices, beginning with the most important choice of all: Whom will we listen to, the aggressive boss ego or the quiet, wise voice that’s always there to guide us to a higher place? You don’t have to make huge changes all at once. I wouldn’t even suggest trying. Just commit, one day at a time, to changing your mind, and you will begin to experience that peaceful life you deserve. The power of one mind changing cannot be overstated. Are you willing to be an example?”

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Review of The Trance of Scarcity, by Victoria Castle

The Trance of Scarcity

Stop Holding Your Breath and Start Living Your Life

by Victoria Castle

Berrett-Koehler Publishers, San Francisco, 2007. 205 pages.
Starred Review
Sonderbooks Stand-out 2010: #1 Other Nonfiction

I think that I ordered this book from isabellacatalog.com. And found it so wonderful, I kept quoting it on my Sonderquotes blog. This is a book about living life to the fullest.

In her introduction, Victoria Castle says,
“In working with thousands of people, I have repeatedly encountered the tragic theme of I am not enough — not good enough, smart enough, rich enough, young enough, old enough, worthy enough. Almost as prevalent is the theme of There is not enough — not enough time, money, opportunity, love, cooperation, power, you name it. This prevailing premise of not-enough-ness successfully cripples the lives of people who would otherwise be buoyant and passionate. Since its subjects are so readily yet unwittingly loyal to it, I came to call this blight the Trance of Scarcity.”

In this book, the author presents joyous ways of escaping the trance of scarcity. I found many of her ideas resonated with things I’d been reading in other places.

One such idea is that our experience of life depends on the story we tell ourselves about it. I liked this paragraph:

“Regarding our Stories, the question is never “Is it true?” because it can’t be true; it’s just a Story. The question also isn’t “Is it the right Story?” because that implies there’s only one correct choice. The most helpful question is “Is this Story useful?” Given what I care about, what I want to contribute, and what matters to me, is the story I’m telling myself a useful one? Most of us constantly replay hundreds of inherited default Stories that trample our life energy and steal our peace of mind.”

If you tell yourself a story of abundance instead of a story of scarcity, you will enjoy life more. And the author has ideas for helping you make the change.

Another beautiful concept is how learning to receive with gratitude leads to generosity and giving, which leads to more receiving with gratitude. This book is full of the idea of living life lavishly and overflowing with joy to others. Here’s another passage I liked:

“If we are not practiced in saying yes to life, then we can forget about bliss — we just want relief! Relief from our hectic lives, from our negative self-talk, from our perpetual fatigue. I used to think that I just had the thermostat set too low, at Relief, and that with a little more practice, I would easily move on up to Bliss. Instead, it turns out that the road to bliss and the road to relief head in completely different directions.

“Relief isn’t much; it’s only an interruption of discomfort. It leads to a nice rest stop with a turnaround that plops you right back on the same road. Bliss, however, is the superhighway to the juiciness of life. As my musician friends Bev Daugherty and Garnett Hundley sing, “Live flat out, eat it all up with a spoon!” Having a high bliss tolerance means you’re willing to be pleased by life. And the better it gets, the more you can stand. In this scenario, you anticipate benevolence and are expanded by your experience. When you are consistently grateful, it’s impossible to feel like a victim; you know that no matter how well it may be disguised, you can find the blessing in whatever’s going on.”

I didn’t review this book right after I finished reading it, because it was not a library book that needed to be checked back in, but my own copy. Doing this review has reminded me how inspiring it was. I think it’s time to slowly reread it, to remind me that my impending probable job loss by no means needs to be a tragedy, but can be an exciting opportunity. It’s all in the story I tell myself, right?

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Review of The Second Journey, by Joan Anderson

The Second Journey

The Road Back to Yourself

by Joan Anderson

Voice (Hyperion), New York, 2008. 205 pages.

Here’s a book written by a woman in midlife, musing about the paths we take. As a 45-year-old woman going through divorce, with a looming job loss due to budget cuts, I was very ready to listen to what she had to say, to share her journey.

I especially liked the last section, where she spends some time on Iona, an island off the coast of Scotland. I especially enjoyed it simply because I have been to Iona, only for a few hours, but it’s easy to remember the spiritual magic of the place, and easy to take vicarious pleasure in her journeys there.

In the prologue, Joan Anderson says,

“The call to a second journey usually commences when unexpected change is thrust upon you, causing a crisis of feelings so great that you are stopped in your tracks. Personal events, such as a betrayal, a diagnosis of serious illness, the death of a loved one, loss of self-esteem, a fall from power are only a few of the catalysts. A woman caught thusly has no choice but to pause, isolate, even relocate until she can reevaluate the direction in which she should head. Should she stay the course or choose another path?

“But alas, many of us inhibit our capacity for growth because the culture encourages us to live lives of uniformity. We stall, deny, ignore the ensuing crisis because of confusion, malaise, and yes, even propriety. Yet more and more, I come in contact with women, particularly in midlife — that uneasy and ill-defined period — who do not want merely to be stagnant but rather desire to be generative. Today’s woman has the urge to go against the prevailing currents, step out of line, and break with a polite society that has her following the unwritten rules of relationship, accepting the abuses of power in the workplace, and blithely living with myriad shoulds when she has her own burgeoning desires.

“This book will help you navigate through change — from being merely awakened to being determined, impassioned pilgrim on her own individual path. This does not mean giving up family and friends; it simply means integrating the web of family and other relationships into your world so that they are a part of your life but not your entire life.”

Here are some good thoughts for your own second journey.

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Review of The Promise, by Robert J. Morgan

The Promise

How God Works All Things Together for Good

by Robert J. Morgan

B & H Publishing Group, Nashville, Tennessee, 2008. 211 pages.

This book is an extended meditation on Romans 8:28 — “We know that all things work together for the good of those who love God: those who are called according to his purpose.”

The author states that the theme of the book is In Christ, we have an ironclad, unfailing, all-encompassing, God-given guarantee that every single circumstance in life will sooner or later turn out well for those committed to Him.

As he says in the introduction:

“But consider this: What if you knew it would all turn out well, whatever you are facing? What if Romans 8:28 really were more than a cliche? What if it was a certainty, a Spirit-certified life preserver, an unsinkable objective truth, infinitely buoyant, able to keep your head above water even when your ship is going down?

“What if it really worked? What if it always worked? What if there were no problems beyond its reach?”

The bulk of the book is going over this verse, phrase by phrase, with life stories and thoughts about what each part of the promise means. I didn’t find it particularly surprising or especially profound. However, this is a very good verse to spend that much time exploring and thinking about!

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Review of Prosperity Pie, by SARK

prosperity_pieProsperity Pie

How to Relax About Money and Everything Else

by SARK

A Fireside Book (Simon & Schuster), New York, 2002. 206 pages.

As I write this review, it strikes me as ridiculously silly, utterly hilarious that I tried to save the $12.48 Amazon.com price by using the library’s copy. SARK’s books are colorful, creative, and meant to be written in! In a book about prosperity, why am I so stingy, that I will not spend $12.48 to release my own creative spirit? I guess I really needed this book!

Prosperity Pie is, as the subtitle says, all about relaxing. She talks about prosperity, about resources. It contains SARK’s “inventions and discovery systems for expanding your feelings of prosperity, with examples of old patterns transforming into new ones.”

“Mostly, it is an active companion to your own journey of prosperity. This book will serve as a sturdy walking stick, a self-love magnifier, and a kind, wise friend who tells you:

You are enough

You have enough

You do enough

And then bring you chocolate”

(Please realize that those words are written artistically and beautifully on the page.)

If you can use that sort of kind and wise friend, this is the book for you.

Now that I have finished reading it, I am going to order my very own copy with the link below:

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Review of Juicy Pens, Thirsty Paper, by SARK

juicy_pensJuicy Pens, Thirsty Paper

Gifting the World with Your Words and Stories and Creating the Time and Energy to Actually Do It

by SARK

Three Rivers Press, New York, 2008. 187 pages.
Starred review.

Here’s a lovely, inspiring, exuberant book of encouragement for writers. Handwritten in a rainbow of colors, SARK (Susan Ariel Rainbow Kennedy) knows exactly what to say to encourage writers to actually put pen to paper.

Here are some examples, which you must imagine in her bright and beautiful handwriting:

“Most of all, I write because of the joy it creates. Writing creates connections and magic and certain kinds of permanent bliss. I can write myself in and out of moods and experiences, and create new places to live in my mind. It’s kind of like pole vaulting with a pen.”

“Last night I ate a lot of ice cream after dinner and then didn’t get much sleep from the caffeine in the chocolate. I could blame not writing on that too.

“Who can I blame for blaming?”

“I’ve learned that literally anything can be used as a reason ‘not to write’ and that these choices are mostly habitual and fear-based and can be changed.”

“We forget that writing is fun and rewarding, or become convinced that it isn’t and load it up with all sorts of reasons why we can’t or don’t do it. We actually think so much about why we aren’t writing, that we forget how to use our energy to actually write.

“This book will remind you.”

“I think of being human as a kind of writing incubator. You are your own hatching station.”

“Reading is most often a source of great joy, which fills wells, cells and provides fuel for our imagination.”

“There is no right or good time to write. There are always days that will be easier or more perplexing than others, but really it’s all just hilarious practicing. I call it hilarious because it’s subject to what life gives and brings us, and that is just so funny and variable.

“If you take time to write every day, it will move like a river or the ocean. I appreciate but do not depend on the moments of days or even days where writing flows smoothly. Sometimes it is stagnant, then rushing, perhaps dripping for long stretches of time.”

“Now I hilariously practice writing daily, and generally like how it feels. I’ve surrendered to being a writer (one who writes) and living that way. Now it’s your turn too! Get yourself a big juicy pen and some thirsty paper.”

The book isn’t only inspiring quotations, but includes plenty of exercises and ideas to jumpstart your own writing. It would be better to purchase a copy and write in it than to do as I did and check it out from the library. Then you can add your own creativity and dip into it again and again.

Just reviewing this book changes my attitude enormously! I love SARK’s joyful and joyous spirit. It’s contagious. If your own encouragement to yourself isn’t enough to get you to write, I strongly recommend SARK’s encouragement.

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Review of Happiness Now! by Robert Holden, PhD

happiness_nowHappiness Now!

Timeless Wisdom for Feeling Good FAST

by Robert Holden, PhD

Hay House, Carlsbad, California, revised 2007. 255 pages.
Starred Review

I truly believe that happiness is a choice, and I like reading books that help me remember to make that choice.

You can tell that this book struck a chord with me by how many times I quoted it in Sonderquotes.

To be honest, many of his illustrations were ones I had heard a zillion times in one sermon or another. But I very much liked his overall concepts.

I was especially struck by his discussions about healing the Work Ethic, the Suffering Ethic, and the Martyr Ethic. The Work Ethic says happiness has to be deserved, worked for, earned, or paid for. The Suffering Ethic says that you have to know suffering in order to be happy. The Martyr Ethic teaches that happiness is selfish.

In contrast with those, Robert Holden says:

“One of the greatest single steps you can take to happiness now is to let go of the belief that happiness has to be deserved. You do not deserve happiness, you choose happiness. Happiness is natural. It is freely available to all. It is unconditional. And when you’re unconditional about happiness, then happiness merely happens! Happiness happens, if you let it.

“Suffering does happen, and it’s regrettable that it does. All of us have suffered disappointment, loss, pain, failure, rejection, bereavement, and so on. In no way am I trying to belittle this suffering, but what I’m saying is that no amount of suffering adds to your greatness. Your Self-worth was established in the heavens the moment you were created. Your worth comes, therefore, from who you are, not what you’ve suffered.”

“The fear that happiness is selfish is not only untrue, it actually couldn’t be further from the truth. Psychology researchers find time and time again that it is the depressed people, and not the happy ones, who are intensely self-focused and self-absorbed. Happy people, by contrast, tend to be outgoing, sociable, generous, loving, and kind. They’re also more tolerant, forgiving, and less judgmental than people who are depressed.”

I found this book to be full of reasons to give up excuses not to be happy. Inspiring and delightful. I’ll conclude the same way the author does:

“The ‘real key’ to happiness, then, is that there is no key! This might seem like bad news, but fear not! The good news is that there is no prison, no door, and no lock. Happiness is open all hours, and if you’re willing to be open to happiness, then you can enjoy happiness now!

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