The Midnight Library - Book Review

 

Vancouver B.C. Library

How often do we wonder how our life might have turned out if we had made a different choice?

The Midnight Library shares a glimpse into the ‘other lives’ the main character could have had. It is an enlightening journey into how each action of ours can send us onto a completely different path, how our words or lack of words can effect someone else and how the most simple act can transform us.

Life is brief but it can be long when it is unhappy, it can fill our heart with important moments or keep us in the dark of denial. Nora Seed is mixed up, she arrives at a place in her life where she gets to try out the lives she had dismissed, she sees that there is no 'one' perfect life. Each one gives us a gift, and the same one has the opportunity to destroy us.

As in our real life, our heart goes with us in each life we choose, it can expand our thoughts or increase our doubt. Our heart will continue to beat, although it is broken. (Tweet This)

This book speaks to the simple life each of us want, it could be on a stage adored by a crowd, or lovingly shared with those who know us best. It depends on us.

The Midnight Library is the setting of our choices, the millions of people we could be, each book balancing on the others, each one with the potential to write the life we want. Each one with the power to make us real.

The quiet made her realize how much noise there was 

elsewhere in the world. Here, noise had meaning.

The Midnight Library

A library (anywhere) is one of my most favourite places, because it offers secrets and the answers, and also the quiet to ponder both. This book is definitely one of my favourites, it makes you think of all the other books that you didn't choose.

Each book balances on the others, each one with the power to make our life real. (Tweet This)

Stay well, stay kind.

(read a book!)

 

 

The Ripple of Kindness

Just as ripples spread out when a

single pebble is dropped into water,

the actions of individuals can have 

far-reaching effects.

Dalai Lama 

 

Courtesy of Pixabay, Sandid
 

 

Kindness counts. 

 

I was at a local thrift shop the other day as I am apt to do when they give a discount to celebrate those of my age. A young man approached me as I was leaving and asked if I was looking for my shopping cart.

 

What a strange question, I thought.

 

As I made my way to the front of the store, I heard one lady speaking to a rather frantic lady. 

Did you lose your cart? she asked.

Yes, the frazzled one said, as she looked around for it.

I took it to an employee because your purse was in the cart.

 

The frantic lady was relieved and thankful. The helpful lady laughed it away, and said that it's easy to forget when you're excited looking for a great find!

 

As easy as that. Kindness.

 

I'm sharing this story from the side streets of life to remind us all. Kindness exists. (Tweet This) I saw it, the almost-had-a-terrible-day lady saw it, the young man working there saw it. And now you can see it too.

 

Start the ripple. Give hope, give kindness.

Let's all be aware of what we can give, what we can receive graciously, and the stories we can share. (Tweet This)

Now tell me, when did you give, receive or witness an act of kindness? Please share your story, we could all use some good news right now.

 

Stay well, stay kind.

 

 

 

Live Slow Be Kind

These words were originally a Guest Post on the Be Well Coaching Programs site, July 2019 and have been edited. Thank you Cassie for sharing my thoughts with your readers.

 

This is a story about kindness and generosity.

So often in our busy lives, we forget an important thing. We dismiss the idea that some small act is more than a token of kindness to someone else. Yesterday, I was the recipient of such an act.

When busyness is the measure of time,

no matter how much time exists it is never enough.

Diana Hunt

We are constantly hunting down the next deal, the next best job opportunity, the newest movie. We are always looking for NEXT.

This is the reason I decided to take a morning off and head to the local Thrift Store. You probably have one just like it in your town. I would use Julia Cameron’s suggestion in The Artist's Way of having a creative day to re-juice. 

I would put away my keyboard to play. It is hard for most of us to stop. To be still. To reflect, appreciate, and see with open eyes. We are wrapped up in being the center of our universe and do not look into the eyes of others (often enough). (Tweet This)

I have been re-organizing my office/guest room/craft space into something more manageable. It is not a large room like what you sometimes see on YouTube as other crafters show you their divine spaces overlooking the treetops or the ocean. However, it is my haven.

Live Slow Be Kind - Jessica's "gift" of kindness

I have had my eye on a three-tiered rolling cart to store and keep my craft items near me. They could be rolled into another room with more working space and be transported in style. As I searched at the Thrift Store, I saw a woman with the cart I was looking for already in her shopping cart! “Darn, I missed it,” I thought to myself. Quickly I realized that if there was one, perhaps next time I would get lucky. As she approached, I said to her, “That’s a prize you found there!” To which without any hesitation, she replied, “Oh, please take it”. I was astounded!

She insisted that I take the rolling cart as she had also chosen a beautiful wire chair that she would put in her garden. I told her that I could see a large basket of potted flowers overflowing from the wire seat. "Will it sit in the sun or the shade?" I asked. We both smiled then as we continued talking about being creative, we were no longer strangers.

She was thrilled with the addition to her garden and I was delighted to get my rolling cart at a fraction of the cost. Then she obligingly allowed me a hug to seal the deal! 

We then had a ten-minute conversation about how I would fill the cart with my various containers of beads and trinkets, mixed media tidbits, stencils and stamps. She suggested that a person always arrive as soon as the store opens on the sale day. She had experience, I could tell! 

Jessica and I met in the most unforeseen circumstance but I hope that she felt my heartfelt thanks at her generosity. 

Without that pause of awareness, of silence, of connection, we would not have met and shared a few moments that lightened both our days.

Live Slow Be Kind. Each interaction deserves it and the benefit will warm your soul. (Tweet This). This is what happened to Jessica and me in the time we stood still.

Take care of yourself and stop long enough to notice.

What could happen today if you stood still?

Stay well, stay kind.

I Named this Piece, Light

I Named this Piece, Light       Photo by Author

Afraid that our inner light will be extinguished or our inner darkness exposed, we hide our true identities from each other. In the process, we become separated from our own souls. We end up living divided lives, so far removed from the truth we hold within that we cannot know the integrity that comes from being what you are.

         Parker J. Palmer

 

Change is difficult for all of us, sometimes we get years to do it and often we are thrust so suddenly that we tend to recoil in fear and surprise. (Tweet This) We can break open.

This piece of mine is about change, about letting the days of our lives slather us in the shades we are ready to see. In the words from one of my most favourite poets, 'that's how the light gets in'.

I thought about Leonard Cohen as I played with this piece. It lived in fragments and chaos for some time, it was truly ugly and unfinished. And also how I knew that I had to just let go and keep going. One moment at a time.

I Named this Piece, Light       

 

I named this piece, Light. 

The dark, the bright, the footsteps that cross our path, the pungent and the sweet. All there across my heart.

Then the white reflecting light showed up. 

The light that joins pieces of our lives previously separated by loss and disappointment, it sneaks in with messages that we needed to hear. It shows up with an unexpected phone call, a song lyric, or buried deep within the pages of a book. It hits you in the face while you're running, or when you see the smiling face of a stranger. 

The light is always there in the cracks. (Tweet This)

It's up to each of us to let it in.

Stay well, stay kind.

 

I have just discovered these two wonderful, supportive artists whose books and exercises I have drawn from in my playing time. 

 

Please note that I am an affiliate. I will receive a small commission if you purchase (at no extra cost to you) if you also come on this learning journey. 

Can You Wait to Get Up in the Morning?

 We could hardly wait to get up in the morning.
Wilbur Wright

 

Let's admit it, we probably don't all feel like the Wright brothers at this moment. In the last year we've all experienced a loss of some kind. Some a little easier to handle, many quite difficult. Many dreams and ambitions put on hold.

From lost friendships, to losing a steady income, to everything in-between. Each disappointment has caused us to re-think who we are, what we want to contribute, where we are heading.

Each zoom call, each email tells us a story of what people are experiencing around us. Netflix dramas are downright scary, many filled with deceit few with laughter. Some of us are craving the Hallmark movie because it is sweetly predictable. We are often underwhelmed with honesty and truth these days. 

So recently, when I encountered a youtube that I regularly follow where she shared her vulnerability of burn-out, my heart surrendered.

As a fellow creator, with a thousand ideas but only 24 hours each day, holding the responsibility of satisfying her public and her family, she told us in her video how she was doing/drowning.

Can You Wait?

Tell me, do you honestly tell anyone how you're doing? It is okay to be sad, directionless, uncomfortable. It is okay to step back and admit it. And this woman did all that in her video. 

She opened the door to honesty. She was real. She cried. She encouraged others to seek help.

It is the nature of despair that we want to hide. Regardless of who we are, we are all hiding something. (Tweet This) Fear of the expectations of our family, fear of time running out, fear of what we have invested with no or limited outcome. We are tired.

It can paralyze us. But if this fear also gives us the invitation to re-invent ourselves, to re-think our previous choices, gives us the courage to share with others who might be feeling the same, how much hope and comfort could it bring to us all?

Climbing that wall to understanding that our pain is not ours alone takes utmost courage. That others feel it too right now, knowing that we can turn to those on the other side of this experience. Is that not a gift?

Can You Wait?

In the last few weeks, I have heard from people whom I had lost contact with over the last few years. What struck me each time, was how open we have been. How we've shared our feelings of our past memories, asked important questions that showed how much we cared, and opened the door as my youtube lady did.

We stop pretending when we choose our community. For support, for understanding, and also for talking nonsense. (Tweet This)

As our time apart slowly comes to an end, let's not forget what we learned. Perhaps we can create a brighter world, with real hugs, all based on our new more open hearts.

Our fear of today is also our invitation to make a change. (Tweet This)

Stay well, stay kind.

 

 

They Baffle and Bamboozle with Choices

I remember when it was easier to make a decision. Fewer brands of everything including toothpaste, they basically said that they cleaned your teeth. And they did. There wasn't a specific one for whiter teeth, sensitive teeth, or shine-up-faster for your date in one week teeth.

Less of This

It was a more simple time. Less interruptions to who you are. You did or you didn't and you didn't care as much. It was easier to hear the answer. Who am I?

Now, you can spend hours choosing a hair product, a box of cereal, or a brand of coffee.

We are overwhelmed with choices.

Now, you can be a minimalist or fill your walls from floor to ceiling. You can order a print online and hang it up in two days. Do you change your decor with the season, the next holiday or whenever you go by the decor store? 

I know many of you came from a family who had the same sofa from when you were born to when you packed a suitcase and left home. Right? Did anyone care?

And for the last year, we have all been held captive within the four walls 'that we really should paint in the colour of the year'. Yea right, because this is our biggest dilemma? Decision making has become worse.

They want us to choose because they need to sell! (Tweet This) They want to give us a course, send us an email filled with links, offer us something to make our life better. Now sometimes this is good, but often it isn't. You need to choose.

And they won't leave you alone. Psychology Today says that we likely make 2000 decisions every hour! No wonder we are baffled and bamboozled.

Most times what they tell us would be wrong. Only you know what you need. (Tweet This)

More of This

I aim to tell people to not look for the hack, the fix, the instant cure. 

Instead go slow, to get ahead. The chances are you will not strike it rich or be fit or find your life partner on a dating site on your first try. You could be lucky, but you're not likely to be the exception.

The world is full of people looking to get 'there' easily. And it doesn't work because the finding is in the living.

Because here's the secret, no one has it all figured out. We are all not complete, we are all searching.  

So I say, be patient, keep trying, make some mistakes, learn from them, look for the people you can trust. (Tweet This)

And then be still, listen, give it room to happen. Choose to find yourself instead of things.

 

Stay well, stay kind.

 

Heart Tread

 

The weather has been bitterly cold here as it has been in many other areas in Canada and the U.S. 

With the promise of sunny and more temperate numbers, I donned my running shoes and returned to my daily morning walk.

Fresh air, it's told, is good for our bodies and brains. Change your route they say, change direction in your usual loop, they suggest. All in the effort to keep our minds alert.

So how many steps did I walk this morning? That really isn't a measure I keep, with head down (watching for slippery spots), I more likely consider it a good walk based on what I see. And today I found this heart.

Surely just a tread from someone's running shoe. Trampled in the not-yet-cleared sidewalk, I had crossed the street within steps of home, and it was there!

It reminded me of an article I had read recently that asked this question of  readers: when was the last time you gave or received a hug from someone outside of your household? (Tweet This)

Shocking to me, most of the responses were not related to the current isolation we are all in.  And sadly, the answers spoke of a long-term lack of connection. The person who said that he hadn't given or received a hug for two years. And the break-my-heart answer which said that he/she could not remember when they were last embraced.

Okay now, I know what you might be thinking. We all know someone who has consistently done what they can to not be hugable. But the number of people who said that they missed being hugged, that they did not have anyone to hug, that they never learned how to hug. Oh my goodness.

The heart I saw goes out to them. (Tweet This)

A gentle reminder that hugs are everywhere, not only wrapped in your arms. (Tweet This)

Hugs can be found in the cup of coffee paid forward for the next customer, the late night text from your adult child, the shrieks of laughter of a child, even in the holding open of a door.

Sometimes it's found on a sidewalk when you least expect it.

Accepting and giving this hug to you.

Stay well, stay kind.