Book Review: Emotional Freedom

I am seriously in love with this book!  Emotional Freedom by Judith Orloff was the perfect book at the perfect time for me.  A friend had recommended another book by the same author, which I immediately added to my reading list.  But then I was at the airport and needed something to read, and this book was there, waiting for me.

Judith Orloff coined the term Energy Psychiatry to describe the kind of psychotherapy she does.  She takes the best of several different worlds and brings them together.  As she approaches what we often think of as negative emotions (fear, frustration and disappointment, loneliness, anxiety and worry, depression, jealousy and envy, and anger), rather than talking about getting rid of them or suppressing them, she teaches people to transform them.  She gives information and solid advice about how emotions affect us physically and what we can do about it from a medical standpoint (drugs, etc.).  But that isn't the end of it.  She also talks about how to deal with these emotions using  spiritual, energetic, and psychological tools.

I knew when I picked up the book that the real test of Orloff's approach would come in what she said in her chapter about depression.  I'm pleased to say that she passed with flying colors.  She acknowledges that feeling a little depressed and major depression are different things.  I've had too many people tell me that I just needed to think more positively and it would go away.  Even cognitive behavioral therapy can't fix everything on it's own.  She gives real tools, using medicine, spirituality, energy, and psychology together to tackle the problem.

I'm excited to explore these chapters again in the chapter by chapter book group posts.  I know that I've already forgotten much of what I found so enlightening in the first half of the book.  I am looking forward to applying her ideas to help me feel more empathy and compassion for those around me (and act accordingly) without being overwhelmed by the suffering of the world.

Book Group: The God Who Weeps Wrap-up

On the Book Group page, you will now find my initial review, all the chapter posts, and links to other reviews of this book.  I want to declare this done, but it's not.  I'm taking a break for awhile, but I think this is a book that I will come back to at some point in the future.

One reading was not enough.  I found new and different things to like the second time around as I re-read in preparation for the chapter posts.  The second reading was a much more positive experience for me.  As I mentioned in my initial review, when I have heard amazing things about a book, sometimes I go into it expecting too much.  And because I'm expecting wow, wonderful, take your breath away experiences, I miss the tiny miracles.  And maybe that is the lesson that I needed most from this book.  I need to dig deep.  I need to look twice (or three times or four times).  I need to be open to all the joy and love that the world holds.

Thank you for being part of this book group.  Although we really didn't get any discussions going (yet), this has been a very good experience for me.

Book Group: The God Who Weeps Epilogue

Help Thou Mine Unbelief

As I mentioned in an earlier post, this epilogue is one of my favorite parts of the book.  Maybe it's because the authors have the courage to say what so many of us are frightened to admit.  Some of us feel like outsiders.  Some of us  feel like there is something wrong with us because everybody else seems to get it and we don't.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is a church of testifying.  Once a month, an entire worship service is devoted to members of the congregation standing and saying, "I know."  We are told that as we testify, our knowledge and our testimonies grow.  But what if you don't know?  What if you have doubts?  What if you believe and want it to be true, but you can't proclaim it with certainty?  What if we will never know in this life?  Does that mean we have no place at the table?

The authors share that many people will live in doubt, but that doubt does not mean that we can't experience miracles.  In Mark, we read of a father who brought his son to Jesus to be healed.  Jesus didn't say, "Sorry you don't have a perfect knowledge so I can't do anything for you."  He said,"If though canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth."  To which the father replied,"I believe; help thou mine unbelief."  Essentially, he said, here's what I can bring to the table now.  Help me to gain more. Help me to believe enough that my son can be healed.

There may even be advantages to doubt.  If your knowledge has never been tested, how do you know how strong it is?  If you take things for granted, do you completely realize the miracle?

Perhaps the world cannot be so readily divided into believers and doubters.  We may be closer tot he truth in recognizing that most individuals are divided in their own souls between belief and doubt, just as the father Mark describes.  We certainly do not profess any certain knowledge and confess our kinship with Keats.  Like him, we know we are "straining at particles of light in the midst of a great darkness."  And yet, what we have presented is a version of life's meaning that makes sense to us.
(page 123)

I've tried to make these chapter posts about the book and about my responses to the ideas in the book, but today, I need to link to a post by someone like me, who has doubts and struggles, but is finding that she is where she needs to be.  Read this.

Personally, I know very little.  But as I've accepted doubt, I've grown immensely.  I know that I have a divine destiny.  I know that there is something bigger than me, something that calls to me with love and compassion.  Something that calls me to love and compassion.  Beyond that, I'm not so sure.  But I choose love and that is making me a better person.

Questions for discussion or personal reflection:  

1.  What do you know?

2.  What do you doubt, but choose to act on?

3.  How can we make the church a safer place for doubters?

4.  What did you love about this epilogue?

5.  Was there anything that you didn't like or that made you uncomfortable?

Book Group: The God Who Weeps Chapter 5

Chapter 5 is a beautiful exploration of what heaven is.  Heaven is a process.  (Love that!)  Heaven happens as we work towards achieving the kind of love and relationships that God has.  

The authors refer frequently to Enoch and his vision and the city of Zion.  One of my favorite scriptures about Zion is Moses 7:18.  

And the Lord called his people Zion, beacause they were of one heart and one mind, and dwelt in righteousness; and there was no poor among them.  

Heaven, Zion, love, and relationships need to be about the here and the now, not about a reward that we will get if we check off a list of things to do a certain way.  If we don't get the love part right, none of the rest of it matters.  

Nietzsche was right when he said Christians had a tendency to turn away from this life in contempt, to dream of other-worldly delights rather than resolve this-wordly problems.  We humans have a lamentable tendency to spend more time theorizing the reasons behind human suffering, that working to alleviate human suffering, and in imagining a heaven above, than creating a heaven in our own homes and communities.  (pages 111-112)

The authors don't bring up 1 Corinthians 13 in this chapter, but I need to.  

1 Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.  2 And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing.  3 And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing.  

I love verse three, because most people think that charity is feeding the poor, but it's not. Feeding the poor, while a good thing, doesn't make you a better person unless it comes from love.   

Achieving heaven or Zion requires that we live according to celestial laws, and at the core of all celestial laws is love.  We become like God as we learn to love like God loves.  

Holiness is found in how we treat others not in how we contemplate the cosmos. (page 113)

We can create heaven, here and now.  There need not be any separation between the ordinary, everyday and holiness, or the physical and spiritual, or science and God.  

What if in our anxious hope of heaven, we find we have blindly passed it by, like Wordsworth blazing past the alpine summit?  What if the possibilities of Zion were already here, and its scattered elements all about us?  (pages 120-121)  

Questions for discussion or personal reflection:  

1.  Do you view heaven as something to attain at some future point, or as a journey we are on right now?  

2.  How are you building Zion or heaven in the here and now?

3.  If heaven is about relationships, what are you doing to build those relationships?  

4.  What are you doing to relieve suffering?  In what ways can talking about suffering be part of relieving it, and when to we need to quit talking and start doing?  

5.  How do you find holiness in everyday things?

6.  What ideas spoke to you in this chapter?  

7.  Were there things that bothered you or that you didn't agree with?  

Book Group: The God Who Weeps Chapter 4

Welcome to the Book Group discussion of Chapter 4 of The God Who Weeps.  This was a tough chapter for me, not because of the way the authors covered the topic, but because I really struggle with understanding it.  I am an intelligent person, but for whatever reason, I simply cannot wrap my brain around the ideas of repentance and the atonement.  I can draw diagrams and teach a lesson on it saying all the right words, but I don't feel it.  I don't understand it.  That being said, this chapter reviewed a few ideas that have helped me in the past and it allowed me to look at a some things in new ways. This post may have even more quotes than usual as I point out the things that stood out to me.

The heading for this chapter includes this quote

God has the desire and the power to unite and exalt the entire human family in a kingdom of heaven, and except for the most stubbornly unwilling, that will be our destiny.
(page 77)

I love this idea.  God wants me to succeed and I will succeed.  (I'm stubborn, but I wouldn't say stubbornly unwilling).

The authors spend a few pages discussing the fact that God does not punish us for our sins.

The pain associated with sin is the natural consequence of our choices; it is not God's retribution upon the wicked.
(page 80)

I'm totally onboard with this.  Every action has a consequence.  Each choice we make creates ripples of effect in other areas of our lives.  When discussing the unhappiness of sin, the authors say,

We have fallen out of alignment with ourselves, and with our God whose love we crave and whose nature we share.
(page 82) 

As a voice teacher, I talk a lot about alignment.  Proper alignment allows us to breath better, gaining the necessary energy and power needed for singing.  Proper alignment allows the body to function correctly.  Proper alignment releases the voice without any interference.  I've also been thinking a lot lately about aligning my spirit with my mind and my body.  When all three work together, things are good.  When I forget to listen to and really connect with one of them, there is pain or unhappiness.  I'm totally stealing the line, "We have fallen out of alignment with ourselves," and posting it where it can remind me not to lose that alignment.

They also talk a little bit about guilt.  Guilt is a tricky subject.  Too many people in the world now suffer from pathological guilt, guilt that is unnecessary, unwarranted, or not theirs to claim.  And I think it is extremely difficult sometimes to decide if the guilt we feel is godly guilt, intended to set us back on the right path, or guilt that just beats us down and damages us.  I'm not exactly sure how I feel about their discussion of guilt (page 80).  It is marked with a note to come back and think about this more.

As in other chapters, the authors reaffirm here that this life is an educational experience.

How much more meaningful is a life designed for spiritual formation, rather than spiritual evaluation.  All tests evaluate, and life is no exception.  But the most meaningful and productive tests are those that assess with an eye to improvement, that measure in order to remedy, and that improve and prepare us for the next stage in an upward process of advancement.  For these reasons, all talk of heaven that operates in terms of earning rather than becoming is misguided.  Such ideas misconstrue the nature of God, His Grace, and the salvation he offers.
(page 87)

The rest of the chapter digs into the topics of repentance, atonement, and salvation, topics that as I said earlier, I don't really understand.

This statement, however, is beautiful and the perfect way to wrap up this chapter post:

If God's dominion does not end with our death, why should the progress of the human soul?
(page 98).  

Questions for discussion or personal reflection:

1.  What are your beliefs about Heaven and how we get there?

2.  Do you use guilt in healthy ways to get you back on track, or does guilt seem to trap you in the negative situation?

3.  What does salvation mean to you?  

4.  What does exaltation mean to you?  

5.  How does the atonement help you?  

6.  What things spoke to you in this chapter?

7.  What things bothered you or left you with questions?  

Emotional Freedom: A mid-book update

When I first read Daniel Amen's book Healing ADD, I was most impressed by the fact that he believes in a comprehensive, holistic approach to dealing with ADD.  It's not just about drugs, or just about diet.  It's about drugs, diet, supplements, behavioral therapy, exercise, etc.  Approaching something from more than one angle, and admitting that there isn't one magic bullet that works for everyone makes sense to me.  That is one of the reasons that I am so exciting about the book Emotional Freedom by Judith Orloff.  She approaches fear, frustration, loneliness, anxiety, depression, jealousy and anger by showing us how they function and affect us on physical level (hormonal and biological changes), a spiritual level, an energy level, and a psychological level.  The solutions must also take place at each level.

I still have 140 pages left to go, but I am so excited to start talking to people about this book. There are ideas presented here that clarify things that I've never quite been able to grasp before.  Because I have gained so much from re-reading to create the chapter by chapter posts for The God Who Weeps, I've decided that Emotional Freedom is the book I really need to study next.

So...

Emotional Freedom will be the next book in the online book group.  I'm hoping to finish up all the chapter posts for The God Who Weeps in a couple more weeks, so you can look for the first post on this book sometime around Feb. 9.

Book Group: The God Who Weeps Chapter 3

Chapter 3 may be my favorite chapter in this book.  This is the part of Mormonism that I love.

1.  Mortal life is not a fall, but an ascent, a chance to grow and progress.  

Mormon's have a different view of The Fall.  Some people believe that because Eve was tricked by the serpent and ate the forbidden fruit, that they were expelled from The Garden as punishment for the sin.  Had Eve not chosen wrongly, we would all be living happily (without sin, pain, or sickness) in The Garden.  Mormon's don't see it that way.  Adam and Eve were given options and warnings. They chose this world.  By leaving paradise, they had a chance to grow in ways that they couldn't if they had stayed there.  Receiving a mortal body, and all that is associated with that, is a necessary step in our learning and progression.

At Eve's courageous instigation, they opt to lose paradise, hoping to eventually regain heaven--but transformed and ennobled by the schoolhouse of experience that comprises mortality.  Mortality, therefore, immersion in bodily, earthly experience, is vital to becoming like God.
(page 59)
Kabbalists such as Moses de León agreed that birth is ascent, not fall, and life's purpose is educative, not punitive.
(page 60)

The authors do wonderful work here, and every page is filled with beauty and clarity.  I could read the first half of this chapter over and over again and never tire of it.

2.  "The natural man is an enemy to God" DOES NOT mean that our bodies are wicked or a curse.

Unfortunately, for too many years I took the words of Paul and  King Benjamin to mean that our bodies were naturally bad, our enemies, and something that had to be conquered if we wanted to be spiritual.  Only in the last few years have I realized how important it is to listen to what my body is trying to tell me.  My body is my friend.  It will tell me what I need to know and do if I listen to it, really listen, and not just notice the most obvious surface details.  The authors speak of "a body that enhances rather than hinders our spiritual progression." (page 69)


3.  It is through our bodies that we can experience the most joy and happiness.

We therefore should not see the body and spirit in opposition.  The fact that Christ chose children as a model for moral goodness means socialization, not incarnation, is the source of our ills.  When Paul condemned the "natural man," he specifically associated it with an acquired, not an innate worldliness. "Human wisdom" and "the spirit of the world" are its hallmarks, he said, not the senses and passions.  Our task is to school our appetites, not suppress them, to make the work in concert with a will that disciplines the spirit as much as the flesh.  For desire has both spiritual and bodily expressions, and our life is a journey to purify both.  Along the way, we discipline and honor the body, even as we aspire to perfect the soul, finding in the end that the body and spirit, fitly framed together, do indeed provide the deepest joy.
(page 72)

Much of this paragraph is highlighted in my book.  In the margin in florescent orange is the word, "Yes!"  Then in blue (from the second reading) is "Chocolate cake principle."  My Chocolate Cake Principle is really about synergy, when two things working together accomplish more than the sum of their individual efforts.  You can read here about how I use it in voice lessons to explain that technique plus interpretation create a better performance than either could alone.  In much the same way, the spirit and the body together can do more, experience more, learn more than either could ever do alone.  The body is not a punishment or a hindrance, but a key component in the development of our souls.

Questions for discussion or personal reflection:

1.  Do you view this life as a punishment, a learning experience, or something else entirely?  

2.  Do you read the story of Adam and Eve as literal history or allegory?

3.  Is your body a hindrance or an educational tool?  

4.  What does the "natural man" mean to you?  Click on the links above for scripture references.  

5.  How has your body helped you experience joy lately?  

6.  What spoke to you in this chapter?  

7.  Were there things in this chapter that bothered you or that you don't agree with?

Books for Children and Young Adults: My Favorite Series

When I read, that world becomes my home.  The characters become my friends.  I want to know more about them and their experiences.  Therefore, I love it when a great author decides to write a series.  Sometimes I prefer to wait until the whole series is out before reading it.  (I did that with Harry Potter).  Sometimes I'm that crazy person anxiously awaiting the release of the next book.

Children's books and Young Adult books are perfect for me.  I love the quick, easy reads, and I don't think a book has to be boring for adults in order to be good for kids.  Some of the best plots and characters that are being written right now are showing up in books for children and teens.

As you can see from the lists, I like fantasy.  If a book takes a myth or legend to a new place, I really like it.  I'm not going to say a lot about most of these books because I want you to go looking for them and see what you think.  I will include a few reasons that I liked them.

My Absolute Favorites

Fablehaven by Brandon Mull

A brother and sister visit their grandparents and discover that the area surrounding their home is actually a sanctuary, a haven for the protection of mythical creatures.  This series is extremely well-written and very enjoyble.  

Artemis Fowl by Eolin Colfer

A brilliant (we're talking mega-genius here) kid discovers that fairies do exists, as do many other creatures of legend, and are actually a technologically advanced civilization.  Artemis begins as the kid you love to hate, but actually becomes a decent human being.  I love his body guard, and Holly, a member of the LEPrecon Unit.

Septimus Heap by Angie Sage

Septimus is the 7th son of a 7th son, and thus is considered to be extremely strong in magic.  The midwife declared him dead on the night of his birth.  Really he was stolen.   

Enchanted Forest Chronicles by Patricia Wrede

You know the story about the princess that is kidnapped by the dragon and someone has to go rescue her?  Well, this story turns that all upside down.  

Percy Jackson and the Olympians by Rick Riordan

Percy goes to camp with the other demigods, kids who have one parent that is mortal and one that is a Greek god.

You Can't Write a Post on YA Books Without Including These

I do have to talk a little bit more about these, especially since they have become such huge movie hits.

Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling

When the first Harry Potter books were released, there was an uproar among some parents concerned about promoting magic.  But there were also kids that were picking up huge books and enjoying reading for the first time.  Now that all the books and all the movies are out, the general consensus seems to be that they are good books and good for kids.  I really enjoyed them, but I think I like Fablehaven more.

Twilight by Stephenie Meyer

Is there any one who doesn't have an opinion about these books and movies?  Most people I know seem to either love them or hate them.  I'm going to be really honest here.  I enjoyed the books. Are they great literature?  Probably not.  Do they model healthy relationships?  Probably not.  I think they are fluff and were fun to read.  I liked that Meyer created something different than your typical vampires and werewolves.  I'm not a fan of the movies.

Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

Years ago a friend told me about a book she was reading in her mother and son book group.  She said that it sounded really awful, but it was really good.  She was right.  I loved it and not only finished that series, but read other books (Underland Chronicles) by the same author.  I like her style, and the stories keep me interested which is my number one criteria for whether or not a book is good.

Series that I Liked Enough to Keep Reading 

(I would also read other books by these authors).

The Last Dragon Chronicles by Chris d'Lacey

The Giver by Lois Lowry

Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery

The Mortal Instruments, Immortal Devices by Cassandra Clare

The Inheritance Cycle by Christopher Paolini

The Bartimaeus Trilogy by Jonathon Stroud

Protector of the Small, Immortals, Song of the Lioness, Beka Cooper, Daughter of the Lioness/Trickster, Circle of Magic by Tamora Pierce

Princess Academy, Books of Bayern by Shannon Hales


What are your favorite series written for children or teens?

Reading the Classics

Last night I read this article challenging us to included the classics in our reading for this year.  He challenges us to read one classic for every new book we read.   I love that idea, but there are so many newer books that I want to read too.  I guess I'll just have to read faster.

At this point, there are 6 books on my "currently reading" list and 28 books on my "to read" list.  Of those 28, only 2 are classics.  That means that if I don't read any other newer books this year, I still need to decide on 32 classics to read.  I really think that Les Miserable and Resurrection should count for more than one book each, but I'm going to try to get through 32 others too.

So now I have to choose.  Which ones do I want the most?  I want to include some books for children and young adult, partly because I enjoy them, and also because they are quick reads and will help make up for all the time that Les Miserables is going to take to get through.

I haven't yet decided how exactly I will define "The Classics", but the general idea is that I want to read  books that are at least as old as I am.

Here are a few I may consider.  Some I will be re-reading and some I will be reading for the first time.


Charlotte's Web by E.B. White
The Call of the Wild by Jack London
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut
I, Robot by Isaac Asimov
Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu (not fiction, but definitely a classic)
A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle
The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury

What do you think about the books on this list?  Which ones did you like?  Which ones should I skip?  What other books should I add?

Book Group: The God Who Weeps Chapter 2

Chapter 2 of The God Who Weeps deals with our existence before this life.  While the authors and I agree that we did exist before we were born on this earth, we have apparently come to that conclusion through different processes.  The bulk of the chapter deals consists of the authors explaining that if we feel X, then a pre-mortal existence is the best explanation.

The authors speak of a longing and of feeling lost, not quite at home in this earthy sphere.  They ask,

Who has never felt the utter inadequacy of the world to satisfy the spiritual longings of our nature?
(page 40)

The answer is me.  Maybe I misunderstood the question. I've often found answers in the world that satisfy my longing and make me feel not so lost.  Nevertheless, I can see how a longing for something more might reflect a memory of something we once had.

One idea that I do agree with is the feeling that I am more than just this body.  There is something that is beyond my body and my mind that is the real me.

The discussion of free will and guilt as evidence of a pre-mortal life did not connect with me.  Again, for some people, and obviously for the authors, this makes sense.

The strongest, most powerful parts of this chapter come at the end when they stop trying to convince us of the pre-existence and just state how we benefit from that belief.  On this, we are in full agreement.

...it suggests that birth into this world represents a step forwarding an eternal process of development and growth, not a descent or regression from a primal goodness.  God's work is therefore first and foremost educative and constructive, not reparative.
(page 52)

We are here to learn and progress.  We are not here because Adam and Eve messed up and because of that all mankind must be punished.  Leaving the garden was a chance for them to grow to progress.

If we existed before, if God did not create the essence of who we are, but merely gave us a chance to move forward, it changes everything.

Soberingly, if we are co-eternal with God, then it is not God's creation of the human out of nothing that defines our essential relationship to him.  It is His freely made choice to inaugurate and sustain loving relationships, and our choice to reciprocate, that are at the core of our relationship to the Divine.
(page 53)

God chose to love us, and we choose to love him, setting love at the center of everything.

Questions for discussion and personal reflection

1.  Do you believe you existed before you were born?  What experiences or ideas brought you to this conclusion?

2.  Do you feel like you have lost something?  Do you have a longing for wholeness that is best explained by a belief in a pre-mortal life?

3.  Do you feel that there is more to you than just your body and mind?  

4.  How do you feel about the idea that God's work is primarily instructive rather than reparative?  

5.  How can God be both co-eternal with us and our creator?  

6.  What things did you like about this chapter?  

7.  What things didn't sit well with you about this chapter?  

Books about Writing

My favorite books on writing are not necessarily the ones that tell you how to be a good writer.  My favorites are the ones that inspire me.  My favorites are the ones that say things about writing that also apply to other areas of my life.  My favorites are the ones that give me a glimpse of the real life of the author.

If You Want to Write:  A Book About Art, Independence and Spirit

When I first started grad school, my voice teacher recommended a book that has become my favorite book on writing.  In her instructions, my teacher said, "Just substitute sing every time she uses the word write."  It worked.  Brenda Ueland's If You Want to Write changed the way I look at singing and at life.  A few years later, when I decided to really jump into writing, it was one of my guideposts.  My copy now shows the markings of several different highlighters and colored pencils indicating the places that spoke to me each time I read it.  Here is one of my favorite quotes:

I want to assure you with all earnestness, that no writing is a waste of time, --no creative work where the feelings, the imagination, the intelligence must work.  With every sentence you write, you have learned something.  It has done you good.  It has stretched your understanding.  I know that.  Even if I knew for certain that I would never have anything published again, and would never make another cent from it, I would still keep on writing.
 (pages 15-16)

I love this.  It's been so long now, that I can't remember if I felt it before, or if I learned it from her.  It is part of me now, though, and gives me a lot of peace.  All my blogging and all of the writing I do each year during NaNoWriMo helps me grow.  I want to do it--I need to do it--even if no one ever reads it.

Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life

Anne Lamott's book Bird By Bird came to me in a similar manner.  A woman who was speaking at a major voice convention read passages from it and recommended the book, again stating that you just needed to substitute singing for writing and it all applied.  This book is wonderful, but the most important thing I took from this book was a love of Anne Lamott.  I have since read several of her other non-fiction books and they have changed how I view writing, spirituality, and life.  I love this quote about perfectionism:

Perfectionism means that you try desperately not to leave so much mess to clean up. But clutter and mess show us that life is being lived.  Clutter is wonderfully fertile ground--you can still discover new treasures under all those piles, clean things up, edit things out, fix things, get a grip.  Tidiness suggests that something is as good as it's going to get.  Tidiness makes me think of held breath, of suspended animation, while writing needs to breathe and move.
(pages 28-29)

As I've participated in NaNoWriMo, this has been particularly helpful.  If you are trying to be perfect, you are never going to get those 50,000 words in one month.  It's just not possible.  You dump everything you can think of into the novel, and sort the mess later.  The beautiful thing is that when you let yourself just write, sometimes when you go back and re-read, you discover that it wasn't as awful as you thought, that there really are gems sprinkled through the mud.

No Plot? No Problem!

And since NaNoWriMo keeps coming up, maybe it's time to introduce Chris Baty's No Plot? No Problem?, written specifically for participants in NaNoWriMo.  The first section of the book gives general hints and tips for getting through, I mean succeeding and having a great time with NaNoWriMo.  My favorite quote from this sections is:

The quickest, easiest way to produce something beautiful and lasting is to risk making something horribly crappy.
(page 32).

The second sections gives week by week advice on how to keep going with your novel.
He perfectly describes my NaNo experience with this paragraph from the introduction.

The biggest success stories of Nation Novel Writing Month, though, are rarely the published ones.  These are the stories of everyday people who, over the course of one frantic month, discover that literature is not merely a spectator sport.  Who discover that fiction writing can be a blast when you set aside debilitating notions of perfection and just dive headlong into the creative process.
(page 20)

On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft

I loved this glimpse into the mind and history of Stephen King.  The man is brilliant.  I love many things about his writing, but I haven't read much of his fiction in several years, mostly because it is so real, and I just need more positive stuff in my life right now instead of things filled with darkness and swearing.  (I looked for the place that he talks about why there is so much swearing.  I couldn't find it, but the idea was that you write what you know, and in real life, people swear. On the positive side, I don't think he just throws it in for no reason.  It fits.  It creates the characters and the situations.) I haven't read this book in a long time, and it's clearly time to pull it out again.  The first time I read On Writing, I checked it out from the library.  Bad idea.  There is so much wonderful stuff in here that it really needs to be read with a highlighter in hand.  

If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others:  read a lot and write a lot.
(page 139)

Zen and the Art of Writing:  Essays on Creativity 

This is another book that I really need to re-read.  (I love how this post just keeps adding things to that list!)  Ray Bradbury writes in ways that make me listen.  He teaches me to trust the process and to trust myself as a writer.  I think that this paragraph is quite insightful, even out of the original context.  

I went back to collecting Buck Rogers.  My life has been happy ever since.  For that was the beginning of my writing science fiction.  Since then, I have never listened to anyone who criticized my taste in space travel, sideshows or gorillas.  When this occurs I pack up my dinosaurs and leave the room.
(page 52)

This quote is one that I actually had posted by my writing area for quite awhile.  I'm not sure what happened to it.  Maybe it's time to make a new sign.  

So again and again my stories and my plays teach me, remind me, that I must never doubt myself, my gut, my ganglion, or my Ouija subconscious again.
From now on I hope always to stay alert, to educate myself as best I can.  But, lacking this, in future I will relaxedly turn back to my secret mind to see what it has observed when I thought I was sitting this one out.
We never sit anything out.
We are cups, constantly and quietly being filled.
The trick is, knowing how to tip ourselves over and let the beautiful stuff out.
(page 111-112)

Letters to a Young Poet

This small book containing the letters of the great German poet Rainer Maria Rilke to a young poet who had asked his advice, was also recommended by my voice teacher.  I read this translation.  Choosing a favorite quote from these letters is not easy, but here is one that speaks to my heart today.

How could we forget those ancient myths that stand at the begin of all races, the myths about dragons that at the last moment are transformed into princesses?  Perhaps all the dragons in our lives are princesses who are only waiting to see us act, just one, with beauty and courage.  Perhaps everything that frightens us is, in its deepest essence, something helpless that wants our love.
(page 92)

The Right to Write

I picked up this book because it was about writing AND it was by Julia Cameron.  I have a couple of other books by her that I really like.  In the introduction, she explains that this book isn't really a book explaining how to write, but it is a book explaining why we should write.  

We should write because it is human nature to write.   Writing claims our world.  It makes it directly and specifically our own.  We should write because humans are spiritual beings and writing is a powerful form of prayer and meditation, connecting us both to our own insights and to a higher and deeper level of inner guidance.   

We should write because writing brings clarity and passion to the act of living.  Writing is sensual, experimental, grounding.  We should write because writing is good for the soul.  We should write because writing yields us a body of work, a felt path through the world we live in.

We should write, above all, because we are writers whether we call ourselves writers or not.  The Right to Write is a birthright, a spiritual dowry that gives us the keys to the kingdom.  Higher forces speak to us through writing.  Call them inspiration, the Muses, Angels, God, Hunches, Intuition, Guidance, or simply a good story--whatever you call them, they connect us to something larger than ourselves that allows us to live with greater vigor and optimism.
(page xvi)

The Rest of the Library (in no particular order)

 How to be a Bestselling Novelist:  Secrets from the inside  by Richard Joseph

How I Write:  Secrets of a Bestselling Author by Janet Evanovich with Ina Yalof

How to Write Science Fiction and Fantasy by Orson Scott Card

Writing Fiction by Gotham Writers' Workshop

Fingerpainting on the Moon:  Writing and Creativity as a Path to Freedom by Peter Levitt

The Midnight Disease:  The Drive to Write, Writer's Block, and the Creative Brain by Alice W.
Flaherty

Writing Down the Bones:  Freeing the Writer Within & Wild Mind:  Living the Writer's Life by Natalie Goldberg

What are your favorite books on writing?  

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2013 Book-related New Year's Resolutions

1.  Buy another book case, or figure out a way to use the under the bed bins for paperback books.

Seriously, I have a problem with book storage.  Once again, the shelves are beyond full.  But I can't get rid of anything.  Books are knowledge.  And besides that, every time I have given away or sold my books, I've regretted it later when I wanted to look something up.  Nope.  I'm not getting rid of them.  Maybe I will need to get rid of a few other things though to make room for more books.

2.  Read books daily.

I am a reader.  I read everything, including shampoo bottles and the backs of cereal boxes.  If there are words on it, I read it.  Unfortunately, I've let myself spend too much time on FB and other online groups.  It's not totally a bad thing, but I've let my personal reading slip as I've kept up with other peoples' lives.  I'm going to try more scanning of FB for things of interest to me rather than reading every little thing.  Then the time I save will be put back into reading real paper books (OK, and a few Kindle books too. They are easy to haul around.)

Since I started this blog and have made myself write about my reading, I have read more and felt more energized and less stressed.  I need this.  I don't care if nobody ever reads this blog.  It is good for me.
Speaking of blogs...

3.  Do at least one short blog post per week.

These may end up looking more like Facebook or Twitter posts, but writing something, even a little bit, helps me process, remember, and learn from what I am reading.

Do you have any book-related New Year's Resolutions?

Book Group: The God Who Weeps--Chapter One

It's taken me awhile to get back to the book group postings for this book, and I think that was a good thing.  I needed a chance to live with what I had read.  I needed a chance to re-read.  Each time I read a book, I use a different colored highlighter to mark things as I go.  This chapter is now orange and purple, and many of the things I marked this time were not the things I marked the first time.  Once again, I'm shown that we learn what we need to know when we are ready for it.  But enough about me.  Let's talk about the book.

Chapter 1 begins with exploring reasons for believing or not believing in God.  Then the authors ask an important question:

If God exists, does He deserve our worship?
(page 14)

Then they explore beliefs about God through the ages, and ultimately come to this:  the God that we can worship, that deserves our worship, is not a god of violence and punishment, but a

more perfect embodiment of the morally good that we recognize and seek to emulate
(page 18)

They then go on to explain that our god is a god of tenderness, sensitivity, compassion, and empathy.  He is a god that feels our pain and weeps with us and for us.  His vulnerability, His weakness (or what our world sees as weakness), is what draws us to him.

For God the Father, as for the Son, whatever power or influence He wields over the hearts of men, it is not the power or influence known to the world...God draws men to heaven "by long-suffering, by gentleness and meekness, and by love unfeigned;  By kindness, and pure knowledge."
(page 32)

I've often thought that one of the reasons we see such a difference between the vengeful god of the Old Testament and the message of love and compassion in the New Testament is that life here on Earth in a mortal body gave Christ an understanding of our suffering and struggles that he could not have completely understood before.

Christ's life in the flesh gave Him an empathy transcending the theoretical...Christ's empathy then is not some inherent attribute of the Divine.  It was dearly paid for, each day of His mortal life...
(page 27)

The final section of this chapter is about joy, God's joy, and the joy we can experience.  The authors quote this beautiful thought from Rachel Givens:

God's power rests no on totalizing omnipotence, but on His ability to alchemize suffering, tragedy, and loss into wisdom, understanding, and joy.
(pages 33-34)

God doesn't purposely put us into horrible situations to teach a lesson.  But He can helps us to learn something from any experience.

Questions for discussion or personal reflection:

1.  Why do you believe in God (or gods, or goddesses, or the Divine, or universal energy)?  How did you come to your beliefs?  

2.  Do you worship because you are supposed to, or because you are drawn to someone or something bigger than yourself, someone or something that you want to become like?  Is there some other reason you worship?  

3.  Does the idea of a vulnerable god scare you or empower you?  

4.  Even Jesus Christ had to learn empathy.  Where are you in this learning process?  Are you quick to judge, or can you see those you disagree with as Children of God, and feel compassion for them?  

5.  What other ideas from this chapter spoke to you?  

Book Review: Genesis A Living Conversation

To be completely honest, Genesis: A Living Conversation by Bill Moyers has been on my currently reading list for a couple of years.  I started it as a way to move deeper into my scripture study. Then life got busy and the book got buried under a pile of other things and I forgot about it.  Maybe that was supposed to happen.  Like I mentioned in yesterday's post, I believe that we find what we need when we need it.  When I started reading it again a few weeks ago, and as I picked up the book to finish it last night, I found exactly what I needed to hear at those moments.  I found the ideas that tied in so well with the other books I'm reading or have read lately.

This book is a companion book to the PBS series of the same name hosted by Bill Moyers.  I picked it up because I absolutely love the book Healing and the Mind where Bill Moyers talked with numerous people from different walks of life about healing.  It was literally life changing for me.  I was hoping for a similar format and experience here.  I was not disappointed.

Bill Moyers brought together 38 people with different religions and philosophies, created unique and dynamic small discussion groups, and talked about the book of Genesis.  Each group tackled a particular section or story from Genesis, sharing their knowledge and perceptions of what it meant to the people of that time and what it means to us now.  In the epilogue, Moyers gives suggestions for starting your own group, and I think perfectly describes what happened with these groups.

Dialogue is about telling and listening.  As I participated in these discussions, I noticed several things that contributed to the pleasure and excitement.  People listened to one another without censure and disagreed without denunciation.  No one tried to mask his or her own religious beliefs, but respected the integrity and boundaries of the religious traditions of all others in the group...
Furthermore, although some participants were ordained or formally trained in biblical scholarship, no one resorted to expertise to claim authority over the others. Participants approached the story in the spirit of the great theologian Martin Buber, who urged people "to read the Bible as if they had never seen it."  Even the most faithful believers kept themselves open to surprise; the admission of not knowing exactly what the passage means made possible an unexpected visitation, revelation.
(pages 349-350)

I write to process what I am learning.  I learn through writing, but I also learn through talking things out with other people.  Whether the discussion happens online or in person, I grow from hearing other people's perspectives and opinions, even if I don't always agree.  I crave the kind of discussions that the groups have in this books.

In the discussion of exile, Burton L. Visotzky makes this statement:

The words are just there on the page.  But as communities of readers, we get together and when we talk, when we debate, when we get heated, that's when we hear the words of God.  That's when the text becomes revelation.  Revelation, which can happen in a secular community as well as a religious community, is a very powerful thing.  It's that lightbulb going on over your head.  You hear someone else with a different point of view, and that person doesn't even have to convince you so much as to show you that there's more than one reading of the text.  (pages 335-336) 

Let me repeat the most important part,

...when we talk, when we debate, when we get heated, that's when we hear the words of God.  That's when the text becomes revelation. 

Yes, personal study and thinking about it alone can bring knowledge, revelation and peace.  But, the words come alive when we wrestle with them, when we share what we think and open ourselves to other possible meanings.  It's too easy in Sunday School to answer a question with "THE LIST".  You know the list:  read your scriptures, pray, go to church, listen to your leaders, serve others, etc.  It's time to ask hard questions.  It's time to explore answers that might not be in the teacher's manual.  It's time to open ourselves to all of the possibilities of what God is saying to us through the scriptures.

Anyone want to join me?  Anyone want to warn my Sunday School teacher?