Jan's Summer Reading 2019 ...

Fill your house with stacks of books,

in all the crannies and all the nooks!

Dr Suess

Hi Everyone!

I've just finished the last workshop of the season, the new Compassion Fatigue: Going Deeper - Trauma, Spirituality and Resilience, and it went wonderfully well according to the evaluations. So now I can turn my face to the long, happy days of summer with the wedding of my goddaughter, Rebecca, at the end of the month and, two days later, a flight to Toronto followed by the long drive and boat ride to the Kahshe Lake cottage of friends. There I'll enjoy two glorious weeks of rest, writing and rejuvenation. (Thank heaven for dear friends willing to share their waterfront retreat!)

As usual, I'm having trouble deciding how many books I can fit in my suitcase! Here's the list from which I'll be choosing this year:

1.  Work Fuel: Boost Performance. Improve Focus. Eat Your Way to Success. by Graham Alcott and Colette Heneghan. (2019)

This book focuses on viewing food as fuel and making choices that will give your brain and body the best chance for optimum performance. For those of us who work (pretty well all of us) it promises ways to boost energy and productivity and fit healthy eating into already busy lives. I'm a sucker for books on healthy eating and this book's post-it phrases like "ditch the al desko lunch" and "be a fuelie" promise a light touch.

2.   The Art of Typing: Powerful Tools for Enneagram Typing by Ginger Lapid-Bogda. (2018)

This new-to-me book by one of the organizational experts in the Enneagram field, is written to help people to type themselves or to help them type others in a more accurate way. It offers detailed differentiating questions to help others clarify their type and, specifically, to differentiate between type pairs from the nine Enneagram personality types. I like Ginger's straight-forward teaching style and look forward to gleaning some new pointers in Enneagram typing. (If you're interested in the amazingly accurate and powerful Enneagram, I will be offering a beginners workshop on Friday November 22nd on Granville Island. You're very welcome to join us!)

3.  Life on the Ground Floor: Letters From the Edge of Emergency Medicine by James Maskalyk, MD (2017)

This award-winning memoir has been waiting on my shelf for the past year and, remembering my own years in critical care nursing, I'm looking forward to hearing how things have changed (or not) as I've gone off in other directions. I understand that it is a somewhat raw read so it may be a book to pace slowly over a couple of weeks.

4.  Rumi's Little Book of Life: The Garden of the Soul, the Heart and the Spirit by Rumi and Maryam Mafi (Translator) (2012)

A collection of 196 poems, previously unavailable in English, from the 13th Century Sufi poet, Rumi, focusing on coming to grips with the inner life. This small book is a guide to the inner journey, one which I hope will make a good companion for contemplation on quiet sunrise mornings by the Lake.

5. Braving the Wilderness: The Quest for True Belonging and the Courage to Stand Alone by Brene Brown (2017) My good friend, Sandra, and I have been reading this book together -  she, as she faces into widowhood after years of carepartnering and me, as I make one more attempt to complete a book on chronic sorrow. For each of us, there is a sense of vulnerability and an enhanced perception of what Brene calls "the wilderness" as we walk our individual paths. Brene defines the wilderness as an untamed, unpredictable place of solitude and searching, a place as dangerous as breathtaking, as sought after as feared. It is where we show up as our true selves and brave uncertainty, standing alone, and potential criticism. 

6.  Slow Dancing With a Stranger: Lost and Found in the Age of Alzheimer's by Meryl Comer (2014) This is a re-read for me. Since I first opened the pages of this book five years ago, three friends have been diagnosed with early onset dementia and I want to go through Meryl's poignant writing once again to resensitize myself to the experience of spousal caregivers dealing with dementia. (I say "re-sensitize" because I've often thought that caregiving is a little like labour and delivery - excruciating in the moment but the intensity is gradually forgotten once the pain ends.)

7.  The Black Ascot (2019) and A Forgotten Place (2018) by Charles Todd.  These books will provide my escape reading while lying on the dock. Each is one of a series - the former about a British police inspector returned from World War I with shell shock or PTSD and the latter about, Bess Crawford, a returned WW I nursing sister. Both struggle with personal demons as well as a murder mystery in each volume in the series.

So, there's the list for this summer. I intend to enjoy as many books as I can while at the cottage and hope you might enjoy a few of them as well.

Summer Reading 2015: Spirituality & Resilience ...

One benefit of summer was

that each day

we had more light to read by...

Jeanette Walls

Hi Everyone!

It's almost time to say "Happy Summer!" and I, for one, can hardly wait to spend some long lazy days with my nose planted in a good book.

All through a VERY busy spring, I've fantasized about sitting on the deck at the cottage with the sun on my back and a pile of books on the ground beside me. As I've made a list of titles to pack into my duffle bag, I've been a little surprised to see that many of them are connected by the thread of spirituality. (I've been growing more and more interested in spirituality as a resilience factor for both compassion fatigue and chronic sorrow but hadn't expected that interest to show up in my vacation reading as well.)

Let me share with you some of the titles that will soon be winging their way to the Muskoka lakeside with me:

1.  The Spiritual Child: The New Science on Parenting for Health & Lifelong Thriving by Lisa Miller, PhD

I've cheated a bit with this one and started reading it already. Written by the director of the Clinical Psychology Program at Columbia University, it reads a bit slowly but offers a host of new-to-me studies on the impact on physical and mental health of supporting and nurturing a child's "natural spirituality".

Research by Miller and her colleagues over the last decade shows that children who have a positive, active relationship to spirituality are 40% less likely to use and abuse substances, 60% less likely to be depressed as teenagers and 80% less likely to have dangerous or unprotected sex.  They are also more likely to have positive markers for thriving and for high levels of academic success.  I'm finding the book a warm, hopeful and practical guide for enhancing children's spiritual development.

2.  The Smell of Rain on Dust: Grief and Praise by Martin Pretchtel

Martin Pretchtel was raised on an Indian reservation in New Mexico and was trained by a renowned shaman there. According to the reviews, he says that modern society has lost its way in leaving grief to be experienced and expressed alone, without the support of community.

He says, "Grief expressed out loud for someone we have lost, or a country or home we have lost, is in itself the greatest praise we could ever give them. Grief is praise, because it is the natural way love honours what it misses." He explains that the unexpressed grief prevalent in our society today is the reason for many of the social, cultural and individual ills we're currently experiencing. He shows how this collective, unexpressed grief, long held by our ancestors as well as ourselves, can be worked through so we can all be healed from the intergenerational trauma of loss, war and suffering.

3.  Fully Alive: Discovering What Matters Most by Tim Schriver

I've wanted to read this book ever since seeing Tim Schriver interviewed about writing it. He struck me as an authentic, vulnerable and articulate seeker who was able to translate both the best aspects of his faith tradition and his experience with the intellectually disabled through Special Olympics into a strong and supportive personal spirituality. He has also drawn on the Kennedy family story of "retarded" Aunt Rosemary who, he says, "taught them all how to care from within". Kirkus Book Reviews has pronounced the book "sincere, profound and deeply satisfying".

4.  Blue Horses: Poems by Mary Oliver 

This is Mary Oliver's latest collection of new poems. She describes in spare and perfect phrases both the everyday happenings and beauty of Nature and the resilience that comes through our connection with the natural world. I can't imagine a summer at the cottage without one of her books.

5.  Walking the Walk: Putting the Teachings into Practice When it Matters Most by Pema Chodron (Audiobook)

I figure this audiobook by Buddhist monk, Pema Chodron, will help to pass the time waiting in airports and during the five hour flights to and from Toronto.

Pema addresses the difference between knowing spiritual concepts and applying them in everyday life. In four sessions, we have the opportunity to reflect upon practices that can be applied in any faith tradition - stabilizing the mind (awareness, presence and foundation), unconditional friendship with yourself (getting unstuck from patterns that create our own suffering), freedom from fixed mind (releasing biases and prejudices to revitalize everyday experiences) and taking care of one another (learning to be truly there for others).

And, as you might guess looking at previous lists, I'm also planning to find space in my bags for a couple of escape novels. At the moment, Joanna Trollop's Balancing Act and Elizabeth George's Lynley and Havers mystery, Just One Evil Act are in the running. (I know, I know, I'm just a little behind on this series!)

Whatever you choose to do this summer, I hope some happy moments with a good book are there in the mix. Enjoy!

  

Books For the Cottage ...

Hi everyone,

I was in the midst of packing this morning when I realized that I hadn't posted my usual summer reading list. Instead, I'll offer you the the titles I'm taking with me to the cottage. I hope something here tweaks your interest:

1.  Poemcrazy: Freeing Your Life With Words by Susan Goldsmith Wooldridge (1997) This wee book is a lovely, joyful collection of meditations and techniques for approaching the art of poetry writing. (And I love the picture on the cover!)

2.  Meeting the English by Kate Clanchy (2013) This "bright story about dark subjects" begins with the main character answering an ad - "Literary Giant seeks young man to push bathchair. Own room in Hampstead, all found, exciting cultural milieu. Modest wage. Ideal 'gap year' opportunity. Apply Prys Box 4224XXC."  This book was placed in every room of the small boutique hotel in London where my good friend, Elaine, spent the last night of her British vacation last year. She says its an easy, moving read.

3. River Flow: New and Selected Poems by David Whyte (Revised edition 2012) This is the description of River Flow copied from its back cover - River Flow contains over one hundred poems selected from five previously published works, together with 23 new poems, including a tribute to an Ethiopean woman navigating her first escalator, a meditation of love and benediction for a young daughter and a cycle of Irish poems that convey a deep love of the land and a lifelong appreciation for its wisdom.

4.  Learning to Walk in the Dark by Barbara Brown Taylor (2014)  This is a spiritual exploration of the positive aspects of darkness from the New York Times best selling author of Leaving Church. She writes: Darkness is shorthand for anything that scares me - either because I am sure that I do not have the resources to survive it or because I do not want to find out. 

If I had my way, I would eliminate everything from chronic back pain to the fear of the devil from my life and the lives of those I love. At least I think I would. The problem is this: when, despite all my best efforts, the lights have gone off in my life, plunging me into the kind of darkness that turns my knees to water, I have not died. The monsters have not dragged me out of bed and taken me back to their lair. 

Instead, I have learned things in the dark that I could never have learned in the light, things that have saved my life over and over again, so that there is really only one logical conclusion. I need darkness as much as I need light.

5.  Hunting Shadows by Charles Todd (2014) This is the latest in the Inspector Ian Rutledge mystery series, set in post WW I England. Inspector Rutledge has returned from war suffering from severe posttraumatic stress and the series investigates the usual number of murders and other crimes in tandem with the process of Rutledge's emotional suffering and healing. This edition is set at Ely Cathedral in Cambridgeshire, a community I know well from visits with my husband's dear cousin, Evelyn. I will enjoy reading the descriptions of familiar haunts.

That's it for me. Off to finish packing! Again, happy summer to you all!





    

Summer Reading List 2012 ...

So summer's finally here - though in BC, with the coldest, rainiest June in memory, it might be hard to recognize! We can look forward to better days, though - sunny days at the beach, at the cottage, hiking in the mountains, or resting on the back deck, hopefully with a new book or an old favourite close at hand.

I'm a true traditionalist when it comes to reading. I want a comfortable chair, a good cup of tea or a cold drink, classical music playing softly in the background and a real book in my hands. Talk about a relaxation response!

I will be doing a lot of writing and research for writing this summer but, between projects and during my three weeks away from work, I'm planning to immerse myself in a number of exciting new books. My good friend, Janet, and I will  choose a book to share at their cottage in northern Ontario but otherwise I intend to enjoy a really eclectic mix, most of them published over the last year.

Here's my list - I'm hoping you might enjoy some of them, too. If you have read any of these titles or have others you think the rest of us might enjoy, why not post a comment to let us know your thoughts?

1. Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking by Susan Cain.

More than half of Canadians are introverts (a significant difference between us and our neighbours to the South where extraversion reigns supreme). Introverts are not necessarily shy people, rather, they are those who, when depleted, prefer to refresh by withdrawing alone to their rich inner worlds of impressions, ideas and feelings. Extraverts, on the other hand, are rejuvenated by interacting with the outer world of conversation, relationships and activities. (Understanding this difference has made a tremendous difference to the health and wellness of many a partnership!)

In, Quiet, Susan Cain, an American, puts introversion under a microscope, pointing out the hidden strengths of introverts and their potential contributions to and difficulties with current organizational strategies, identifying "successful" introverts, and suggesting how to better negotiate introvert-extravert differences. I've been waiting for this book for years! I hope it will help folk to understand, among other things, why the repeated, well-meaning intrusions of helping professionals into the homes of introverted family caregivers and their care recipients can be so terribly depleting.

2.  Calm Kids: Help Children Relax with Mindful Activities by Lorraine Murray.

This little book looks to be a very practical, hands-on guide to helping children recognize and cope with stress and tension. Lorraine Murray, a meditation and relaxation teacher and the managing director of a Scottish holistic health company called, Feel Good Therapies, offers simple explanations of meditation and stress, teaching tips, and age-specific exercises to use with kids. She also offers specific discussions of meditation for children with ADHD and autism spectrum disorder.

3.  Tiny Homes: Simple Shelter by Lloyd Kahn.

I can hardly wait to read this one - in fact, I skimmed much of it at Granville Market over a latte before I even got home from the bookstore! I've always been fascinated with the idea of simplifying sufficiently to live comfortably in a very small space. (This interest was fuelled by a 6 month adventure spent travelling 23,000 miles around North America in an ingeniously-outfitted Volkswagen van in the mid-1970's.)

My dream, now, as I get a little older, is to build a tiny home on half an acre of wilderness somewhere not-too-far from Vancouver. The dream may never come to fruition but books like this collection of homes under 500 square feet can literally make my toes curl in anticipation.

4.  A Lady Cyclist's Guide to Kashgar by Suzanne Joinson.

Described as, "a tale of two journeys - two sisters embark on a bicycle trip on the Silk Road in 1923; a present-day Londoner befriends a homeless Yemeni man"( LA Times) and reviewed, thus, by Sara Wheeler of the New York Times Book Review, - 

" ... The dramatic opening of Suzanne Joinson's thrilling and densely plotted first novel offers only a suggestion of the tumult to come ... Joinson, who has herself travelled widely on behalf of the British council, controls her narrative with skill: this is an impressive debut, its prose as lucid and deep as a mountain lake ... Through Frieda and Eva and their companions, she explores notions of freedom, rootlessness, dislocation."

- this novel looks like the beginning of a great career for a new novelist.

5.  Freedom From Pain: Discover Your Body's Power to Overcome Physical Pain by Peter Levine and Maggie Phillips.

I am a great admirer of Peter Levine's contributions to our understanding of trauma healing. In this new book, he partners with pain specialist, Maggie Phillips, to offer a process for addressing unresolved emotional trauma held within the body, trauma that underlies much of our chronic pain. 

This book includes a CD of guided practices for healing, in addition to chapters on suffering, neutralizing factors causing chronic pain, the journey back from unmanageable pain, preventing and resolving the pain of medical trauma, and resilience, continued recovery and restoring the deep self.

6.  The Kaleidescope by Gail Bowen.

This is the thirteenth of the Canadian mystery series about, Joanne Kilborne, once a police officer, then a political commentator, and now a retiring political science lecturer at a Regina university. She is smart, direct, emotionally honest and struggles with all the issues that plague any working mom (and a few besides) so if you're looking for a new-to-you mystery series to start at the cottage, I would highly recommend this one.

7.  The Book of Kale: The Easy-to-Grow Superfood, 80+ Recipes  by Sharon Hanna.

I love and use kale, one of the world's most nutrient-dense foods, in just about any form but this new cookbook takes the eating of this superfood to a whole new level - kale chips, kale and potato torta, scalloped kale with browned butter and sage - mmm-mmmmm! Sharon Hanna not only offers 80+ recipes, she gives directions for growing kale organically, and for teaching kids to love to eat it (- a challenge for many mom's of kids who "don't like vegetables" but not for Hanna who has spent many years as an award-winning coordinator of an inner-city school garden program.) 

8.  Wild Hope: On the Front Lines of Conservation Success by Andrew Balmford.

At last, a collection of encouraging stories about our efforts to protect the natural world. While it is important to continue to assess the areas in which we are failing, I am grateful to my young friend, Alie, (currently collecting Master's thesis data on orangutan conservation in the forests of Borneau), for her reminder that we sometimes need hopeful stories in order  to fuel our continuing efforts. This looks like a book that will fuel many to continue their work and, perhaps, motivate others to begin.

So, there's my list. I hope that, no matter what you choose to read this summer, you will find refreshment and rejuvenation between the pages of a great book! Happy reading!