New Page for Free Book ... and corrected link

Lost in Technology

Apologies to everyone who had trouble downloading the book. It looks like I created a hiccup in the Wandering & Wondering with a Storyteller's Eye.

This image ... Lost in Technology ... is a bit how I feel about this learning curve.

If you had any trouble, please try this link.

And, below, there is a new page, which will expand to a readable size if you click on it.

It looks like there's going to be a completely new chapter in the final book: Magic!
You will have an opportunity to get the complete, final book, ... Free, of course!

Please click on this image to get a readable size.

Book Challenge, Day #5: Big Magic

Books have always been my guides and teachers. In my early life, Napoleon Hill’s Think and Grow Rich opened me up to positive thinking and Alex Osborn’s Applied Imagination led me into a life-long love affair with the mysteries of creativity. 

 

At this stage of life, I’m enchanted by Elizabeth Gilbert’s Big Magic which invites us to live a creative life. While creativity is a word that intimidates many people, Gilbert defines it as being driven more by curiosity than fear.

One form of curiosity she encourages is discovering the hidden jewels within us. Those of us who have lived long tend to think we have discovered all our skills and talents. However, we are endlessly complex creatures, and as long as we have breath, there are things to discover about ourselves.

"The Universe buries strange jewels deep within us all, 

and then stands back to see if we can find them.

"Do you have the courage to bring forth 

the treasures that are hidden within you?”

— Elizabeth Gilbert, Big Magic, Creative Living Beyond Fear

Book Challenge Day #4: Barbara Kingsolver

What thrills me most about Barbara Kingsolver … now at least ... is that I never know what to expect, but I always know it will be an interesting journey. I started reading her sometime after The Bean Trees came out in 1988 and drifted delightedly through Animal Dreams and Pigs in Heaven. I put her in a neat little box of authors I enjoyed. 

 

And then came The Poisonwood Bible and I didn’t know whether to put it on an altar or spit on it. It wasn’t what I signed up for when I bought the name Kingsolver.

However, after finishing it, I found myself thinking about the characters, thinking about the world they lived in and the challenges of living in such a different culture. Particular passages or events haunted me and still make me think about them. 

 

By the time I got through to Prodigal Summer, The Lacuna, and Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, I had stopped thinking about her as a name on a book, but rather as a woman who was thinking and writing about things that interested me. And then came Flight Behavior, a magical book. All I know now is that whatever she writes, I will read and be transported to a different place and informed about the world and all its wonders.

When I went to her website to write this post, I found some thoughts worth sharing:

"What keeps me awake at the wheel is the thrill of trying something completely new with each book. I’m not a risk-taker in life, generally speaking, but as a writer I definitely choose the fast car, the impossible rock face, the free fall.”

— Barbara Kingsolver

"Literature is one of the few kinds of writing in the world that does not tell you what to buy, want, see, be, or believe. It’s more like conversation, raising new questions and moving you to answer them for yourself.”

— Barbara Kingsolver

"The very least you can do in your life is to figure out what you hope for. The most you can do is live inside that hope, running down its hallways, touching the walls on both sides.” — from Animal Dreams

Book Challenge Day #3: To Kill a Mockingbird

The first book I ever bought for myself.

I grew up on a “farm” outside a small town in southeastern Kansas. Coffeyville had a library that I loved but no bookstore. In 1961, I went with a friend and her family to the big city … Kansas City … where I saw my first bookstore and purchased my first book … To Kill a Mockingbird. I didn’t know anything about it so I’m sure it was just because of the intriguing title.

On that trip, I fell in love with bookstores and my idea of wealth was formed. Someday I would be rich enough to walk into a bookstore and buy as many books as I wanted.

TKM knocked me over. Kansas at that time was relatively progressive. Schools were integrated and most of us didn’t think much about diversity and social conditions. Actually, at that time of my life, I’m not sure I thought much about anything. 

To Kill a Mockingbird made me think. Not long after that, I moved to Fort Smith Arkansas, where schools were not integrated and there were still “whites only” signs around. It was a different world and I could see the difference, and began to think about justice, equality and the world I wanted to live in.

To Kill a Mockingbird is now one of our most beloved books and definitely one of the books that shaped my world view. I'm not sure how many times I've read it, but it may be time to read it again.

Book Challenge Day #2: The Four Agreements

The Four Agreements

There is something dangerous about gaining awareness: it can bite you when you forget.

Recently I met a woman who pushed ALL my buttons. Within minutes of meeting her, I had several valid reasons for not liking her. I won’t bother listing them as they don't pertain to this insight and probably aren't even true.

Yesterday morning, sitting in one of my favorite coffee shops, a vendedora came in with load of bags and other bright, colorful items, as well as her two, very cute, children. I’ve bought several things from her in the past, but this morning I didn’t need anything. 

We exchanged pleasantries as much as two people can without a shared language. Then, she pulled out a piece of paper, handwritten in English, obviously by someone else, describing her situation and why she needed money. The note encouraged the reader to be generous. It was a touching note and at the bottom, it was signed by the woman I recently met, whom I had written off and talked unkindly about to others.

I contributed some pesos to the mother, but it didn’t wipe away the guilt I felt about judging someone so harshly AND indulging in unkind conversation about her.

As I sat there, I thought of the Four Agreements, principles I have worked on for years, and obviously still need to continue working on. After reviewing them again, it was clear I was out of sync on at least three, and maybe all, of them:

1. I wasn’t impeccable with my word. It was bad enough that I judged her so harshly but I spoke to others about my feelings as if they were the reality of who she is.
2. I took things personally. The woman and I had a small exchange that I definitely took personally and felt offended.
3. I made assumptions. I assumed many things about this woman and judged her harshly.
4. I didn't do my best to be kind, and fell far short on one of my core values.

How fortunate I was to have this interaction that held up a mirror that helped me see an unflattering view of myself. A Facebook friend shared a quote from John O’Donohue that likens us to a tower of windows. Moving to a different window shifts our perspective.

Today I am choosing to move to a window that reminds me that what I see in others is not who they are, but rather a projection of who I am.

Thankfully, today is another day.

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Book Challenge Day 1: John O'Donohue's Anam Cara

There are books I read, enjoy and immediately forget.

And, then there are some books, slow books, books that take weeks or months to read, that demand to be highlighted and contemplated, books so beautiful I can never forget them.

In 2009, I was at a low point, feeling homeless, abandoned, untethered. Some how I came across John O'Donohue's book and fell immediately, head over heels in love with his words ... and, more importantly, the possibilities of my life.

I couldn't get to Google fast enough. I wanted to experience more of this person; I wanted a workshop. It broke me open all over again to find out that he had died the previous year. I had to make do with his words so I have read them again and again.

Here are just a few that a Facebook friend shared this morning. It reminded me to download a kindle version since I left my library behind when I moved to Mexico.

Savor and enjoy.

“There is a beautiful complexity of growth within the human soul.

In order to glimpse this, it is helpful to visualize the mind as a tower of windows. Sadly, many people remain trapped at the one window, looking out every day at the same scene in the same way.

Real growth is experienced when you draw back from that one window, turn, and walk around the inner tower of the soul and see all the different windows that await your gaze.

Through these different windows, you can see new vistas of possibility, presence, and creativity. Complacency, habit, and blindness often prevent you from feeling your life.

So much depends on the frame of vision—the window through which you look.”

Love Letters to my Life #2: New Book: Kaleidoscope of Self

Click here for copy

It may be the middle of the year, but I’m still thinking about the Christmas letter I didn’t write … that
actually I never write but always think about writing.

In the past year, I’ve created a mountain of art … well, it would be a mountain if it weren’t all stacked in my computer in neat, pixel-hungry Photoshop files.

What I really wanted was an album where I could look at my art and share it with friends. The solution I hit on was a digital magazine: dump in the photos, make a link and send it out. Simple.

Why is it that simple ideas seldom are?

Beautiful though digital magazines are, it didn’t take long for that solution to reveal it’s complications … and expense. However, I was just about to leap into the new software and monthly expenses when a friend recommended iBooks Author.

At first, I rejected the idea. I didn’t want to publish another book and go through getting an ISBN number and publishing it to some e-book site. And, I definitely couldn’t afford to actually print a full-color book of art.

My friend let out a not-so-patient sigh and said: 

PDF. 

oh.

So, I opened up the free software, somewhat determined to prove her wrong … and fell into wonderland, substituting my own letters: OMG!

Suddenly, I was on a path that allowed stories, poetry, lessons and bits of wisdom I’ve picked up along the way to be part of the journey. It was like a life collage forming in front of me … with no glue bubbles to try to eliminate.

Slowly, it turned into a book. But, not a 50,000-word book … more like a 5,000-word book with lots of pictures. A picture book for adults, especially adults trying to navigate "this stage of life."

In the process, the book became my second love letter to my life. And, to celebrate the completion of it, I’m giving away the pdf version for a month to my friends and all their friends and friends of friends.

 

So, if you would like a FREE copy, click on this link

 … before September 16th at 10:00 p.m. CST. At that point, I'm either going to sell it or retire it.

In case you would like to see small views of a few of the pages ... if you click on the image, you'll get a bigger view which you can actually read:

Chapter 1 - WONDER, page 7

A major question ends each chapter.

Chapter 3 - WANDER has a lot about Oaxaca - the story behind the frame is a favorite.

Chapter 6: CONNECT, page 63 ... all art is mine.

It took 10 pages to say Adios (to god) and required a brand new piece of art.