Author Walkie Talkie Book Club

Sense of Direction: Clear Purpose

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Juice Shaving Soap

Shaving soap may change my life. Image by savor_soaps via Flickr

I didn’t get my Friday post written until today.  Fridays are always such busy days!  And Thursday was a busy day as well, with Cosmo Girls in the evening! Cosmo Girls was a great amount of fun, with almost all of us in attendance, and an amazing woman teaching us about natural soaps and skin care!  We got to make our own sugar scrub and got a bar of shaving soap.  Amazing!  It think it may change my life! Ha!  But she was an amazing woman with an amazing story.

She was diagnosed with leukemia 16 years ago and given a 17% chance of surviving five years (long story short) and to deal with the reactions her skin was having to her treatments, she was given a bar of pure soap which gave her comfort.  She decided to make her own soap and her friends encouraged her to pursue it as a business.  She waited until her cancer was in remission and she outlived their expectations and then she went for it.  That was ten years ago and today her business is booming.

What an inspirational story of someone who is passionate about what she is doing.  With a clear purpose and personal fulfillment in her business.  It’s so fun to learn from amazing women!

Sense of Adventure: What would you attempt to do if…

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I’ve seen this on paperweights and wall hangings and t-shirts.  It’s an important question and one that I ask myself.  But what is failure?

  • Getting rejected or turned down? I think I’ve gotten pretty good at rolling with that, and it’s no longer what stops me from trying something.
  • Not doing something perfectly? I’ve always been something of a perfectionist, so sometimes it is easier to not try than to do it imperfectly. But I’m getting better at that, too.
  • Financially failing? I have lived well, but living within my means has never been easy.  And failing financially is a big fear that I have.  Stability and constancy has always been important. Knowing my income and where it was coming from.  But do I feel like a failure now, that I have nothing stable going on?  Not really… maybe it’s different when it’s through no fault.  Or maybe losing a home to a natural disaster gives you even more perspective about what is really important – relationships and not things.
  • I think losing relationships would be the most devastating form of failure to endure. But I wouldn’t attempt to do anything that would impair relationships, so it shouldn’t take away from a sense of adventure.

So if I knew I could not fail, what I would I attempt? I’ll keep thinking on that, and hope that you do, too!

Off to read!

 

 

 

 

 

Sense of Humor: Remember this?

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As we move into November, it’s good to remember that it wasn’t that long ago that we were laughing at this:
It’ll be a while before it comes back again, but it will!

Happy November!
Off to read!

Books: a two-fer

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Vaclav and Lena: A Novel

Vaclav and Lena: A Novel

I listened to this story on audio and I really think that it added to the experience. There were two narrators (although mostly one) and there were accents (done well) and there was a lot of emotions put into the reading.

Two children, best friends at 9 years old, living in Brooklyn with Russian parents, and then the separation. And the mystery. Years and years. And then they meet again.

Good story. 🙂

The Wisdom of My Grandmothers by Adriana Trigiani
The Wisdom of My Grandmothers
by Adriana Trigiani

4 of 5 stars
Read from October 29 to November 01, 2011
I’ve loved Adriana’s books for years. I won a copy of this book and then listened to Book Club Girl’s blog radio interview with Adriana tonight.

Adriana was blessed with strong grandmothers who lived into her 30s. They were born in 1895 and 1907 and both were hard-working career women who found the love of their lives. It is easy to see the influence these women had on the fictional characters you find in Trigiani’s novels.

I especially loved the passage where she says, “Looking back, now, I realize that you only ever need one person who lights up that way when you enter a room. One person is all it takes to give a kid confidence.” Yes.

Good stuff.

Sense of Self: Don’t Sing at the Table

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Adriana Trigiani is one of my favorite authors.  I have read almost all of her books and enjoyed every one.  I’m currently reading her latest in paperback, “Don’t Sing at the Table: Life Lessons from my Grandmothers.”  It’s an easy read and an enjoyable little book.  She had powerful grandmothers.  They were business owners.  They were hard workers. They were sensible and taught many lessons, through their actions.

And the lessons are still applicable to today’s world.

I’ve maybe mentioned before that I don’t care for books where people set out to experience something in order that they may write a book about it (ala The Happiness Project or Eat, Pray, Love or Julie & Julia (which I’ve never read)), but books which are a summation of what has been learned through life experiences are more interesting to me (ala The Satellite Sisters Uncommon Senses or The Girls from Ames or Don’t Sing at the Table).

Someone asked me last weekend, “Can you write?”  I didn’t hesitate too long before I said, “Yes.”  I have a good grasp on grammar and vocabulary, I can put ideas down in an interesting way, I enjoy blogging more and more all the time, I write a pretty good letter or year-end summary.  Does that mean I can write?  If I were to make a list of things that I AM, I don’t think I AM A WRITER would be in my top ten.

Not to say that I wouldn’t love to be a writer.  I read a lot of blogs about books but I also read some blogs about the writing process.  I am fascinated by the way authors work and think and prepare and plan.  I would love to be able to write a book, and it something that I may put on a list to do.  I’m not sure what kind of book – fiction or non, children’s or memoir – but it’s something that I am exploring.

What about you?  If you made a list of I AMs what would you include?

Off to read!

And once again… subscribe if you want to continue reading… I’m not going to link to facebook after this week. 🙂

Sense of Connection: Cosmo Girls

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It has always been important!

It has always been important!

When I lived in Rushford I was part of a group called The Modern Priscillas, and it was the oldest group in the history of Rushford, with its beginning going back to 1904, I believe. The women met weekly at that time, sharing a meal and sharing their talents or knowledge with each other. The group evolved to monthly meetings with dessert but maintained that learning component, as well as the traditional “roll call” at the beginning and “Collect for Club Women” at the end. .

After I moved, I realized I missed that monthly connection to women and reading Jeffrey Zaslow‘s book, “The Girls from Ames,” confirmed the reasons why. Research about women and friendships is pretty clear:

Consider these findings:

  • Longevity – Married men live longer than single men, yet women who marry have the same life expectancy as those who don’t. However, women with strong female social ties (girlfriends) live longer than those without them.
  • Stress – For decades, stress tests focused solely on male participants, believing that all humans would respond in the same manner. When these same stress tests were finally conducted on females it was discovered that women don’t have the same, classic ‘fight or flight’ response to stress that men do. According to the research presented in The Tending Instinct, women under stress have the need to ‘tend and befriend.’ We want to tend to our young and be with our friends. Time with our friends actually reduces our stress levels.
  • More Stress – A study conducted by the UCLA School of Medicine found that when we’re with our girlfriends, our bodies emit the “feel good” hormone oxytocin, helping us reduce everyday stress. By prioritizing our female friendships and spending time with these friends, we take advantage of a very simple, natural way to reduce our stress.
  • Even more stress – Prairie voles, a monogamous rodent, have a similar response to stress. When a male vole is put in a stressful situation, he runs to his female partner. Female voles, when stressed, immediately run to the females they were raised with.
  • Self-esteem – A recent study by Dove indicated that 70% of women feel prettier because of their relationships with female friends. It’s no surprise that our self-esteem is highly influenced by our girlfriends; this is important to understand for girls as well as women.
  • The Health Factor – Women without strong social ties risk health issues equivalent to being overweight or a smoker – it’s that serious.
(The Girlfriend Instinct – The Value of Female Friendships: The Desire to ‘Tend and Befriend’ is Part of Our DNA, )

So knowing all this, in the summer of 2010 I sat down with some of my girlfriends and we brainstormed and wrote a letter to send out to more friends or people we’d like to know better. We set up the guidelines of the group – meeting first Thursday of the month, 7pm-10pm, 16 members (a nice number), September through May – and the women we contacted were tickled and said YES quickly. Below is part of the letter that we sent out. My friend Deadra is replicating the idea with modifications in St. Paul with tremendous results, as well!

As women, we know the value of our time together. Sometimes it just takes an organizer!

Off to read!

Cosmopolitan: (noun) a person who is free from local, provincial, or national bias or attachment; citizen of the world; cosmopolite. (adjective) 1. free from local, provincial, or national ideas, prejudices, or attachments; at home all over the world. 2. of or characteristic of a cosmopolite. 3. belonging to all the world; not limited to just one part of the world.

In our world where virtual connections are made every day, we would like to create a real-life support network of wise and wonderful women! A group of women committed to getting together monthly with the purpose of learning about each other and the world. We threw out a few names and when we looked up the definition of “cosmopolitan,” we thought it was the perfect name and perfect aim for our group – to be ‘of the world’ – and we can shorten it to the COSMO GIRLS!

If you like reading this blog…

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I don’t think I’m going to continue linking my blog to facebook, so if you are enjoying my posts, please “subscribe!”  It’s simple – if you click through to the blog, there is a box in the upper right corner where you put in your email address and then the blog will be emailed to you as I post them.

There are other more complicated ways to read blogs regularly, but that is the simplest!

And if you like the blog, comment on it!  That’s another thing that brings me joy (see earlier post!)!  Getting comments from people!  🙂

I intend to keep posting about the five senses as well as random thoughts about books and movies.  Nothing too exciting but I’m having fun for now.

Off to read!

Sense of Direction: Joy

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Once again, Friday’s post about having a sense of direction proves to be the most difficult to write.  It is, as I said before, something I am obviously spending a lot of time thinking about, but I am feeling pretty private and don’t want to spill all those beans all over this blog.  So if you want to know more about my thoughts about what I want, where I am going, how I’m going to get there, schedule some one-on-one time with me and we’ll discuss!

But what I do know for sure is that joy is something that I want to have in my life and that I will continue to seek out and to work toward. I don’t have a hard time finding joy in little things.

  • I find a lot of joy in my little townhome and the beautiful things that surround me.
  • I’ve been able to take three of the kids to school three days this week, and it’s fun to see their happy faces in the morning and drop them off with “I love you’s”
  • Getting up early and going to a 6AM Bible study has made Thursdays into super long days and I really think it’s pretty cool!
  • Rewatching movies from my movie shelves has been a lot of fun
  • Singing and reconnecting with Rushford friends on Monday has brought me a lot of joy this fall
  • Baking cookies and breads (and dinners!) for friends and family brings me joy
  • Participating in the Anna Karenina readalong with friends and lots of people I don’t know is a lot of fun, and books bring me lots of joy!

I could go on and on with my list, but I’ll stop there for now.  Below are some good quotes I found about joy and finding joy in your work.  I hope you enjoy!

  •  Work is love made visible. And if you cannot work with love but only with distaste, it is better that you should leave your work and sit at the gate of the temple and take alms of those who work with joy. Khalil Gibran
  • We are shaped by our thoughts; we become what we think. When the mind is pure, joy follows like a shadow that never leaves. Buddha
  • Your success and happiness lies in you. Resolve to keep happy, and your joy and you shall form an invincible host against difficulties. Helen Keller

Read more:http://www.brainyquote.com/

Off to read!

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Sense of Adventure: Saying YES

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Cover of "Yes"

Cover of Yes

One of the things on my list of 40 things was to say YES more (right after saying NO more! Different reasons…).  Saying YES (to me) means being open to spontaneous adventures and experience and doing things outside my comfort zone.

Sunday my friend Sarah texted and asked if I’d like to come over and get my photo taken for a photo project to be exhibited at the Rochester Art Center.  I didn’t get ready in time but during a walk we found the photographer and it happened.  It wasn’t hard to say YES to having my picture taken but when the camera was walking towards me I did feel a little intimidated.  And it was an in-your-face-photo, so I thought he probably only got my eyes in the frame, but I guess the macro lens captured my entire face.

In Your Face

The photographer was asking random people and having a hard time getting people to say YES to having their photo taken so he was looking for people he knew to bring his numbers up.  Why would someone say NO to  having their picture taken?  Was it the thought of someone getting too close?  The thought of having it hanging on a wall outside of your home?

Well, I said YES and I’m excited to attend the opening of the exhibit tomorrow night*** and to see all of the other Rochester people who said YES.

Off to read!

*** I always write my posts the night before and set them to publish in the morning… so the art exhibit opening is TONIGHT – Thursday!  The exhibit runs for a while, but tonight is the opening night.  Just a clarification!

Sense of Humor: The Angry Dance

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Footloose (soundtrack)

Image via Wikipedia

I went to see Footloose opening weekend – the revamped version – and it was good!  Really good!  It was a lot of fun to sing along and tap our feet to the beat of the familiar tunes, watching a familiar storyline and some incredible new dancing.  I laughed, I cried.  It was a good time.

And it reminded me of this scene from the final episode of Season 1 of Flight of the Conchords – Bret’s Angry Dance.

That iconic scene in Footloose was kind of dorky the first time and pretty powerful the second time – and really funny when Bret does it.

Enjoy.

Off to read!