the globe rover

Denver, CO

I have just completed class five of the Oprah and Eckhart Tolle “A New Earth” series. In doing some follow up reading on the internet I found two powerful sets of words that I find great meaning and depth in. The first is a poem by David Waggoner entitled “Lost”:

Lost
From Traveling Light: Collected and New Poems by David Wagoner. © 1999 by David Wagoner

Stand still. The trees ahead and bushes beside you
Are not lost. Wherever you are is called Here,
And you must treat it as a powerful stranger,
Must ask permission to know it and be known.
The forest breathes. Listen. It answers,
I have made this place around you.
If you leave it, you may come back again, saying Here.
No two trees are the same to Raven.
No two branches are the same to Wren.
If what a tree or a bush does is lost on you,
You are surely lost. Stand still. The forest knows
Where you are. You must let it find you.

The poem is precisely what “A New Earth” is about…finding contemplative presence and being able to be and accept and surrender. The poem and the book encourage us to listen rather than to seek and come into the present moment.

The second set of words that I really like is a quote by Albert Einstein that encourages much of the same thing. We must separate ourselves from our thoughts and free ourselves from the “prison” of our mind in order to become conscious and see the beauty in all living creatures.

“A human being is a part of a whole, called by us ‘universe’, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest… a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.”

Both are powerful. And full of words I hope to remember and practice daily.

Denver, CO

I have recently become hooked on dictionary.com’s word of the day. I love getting my new word of the day and was stumped to get today’s word:

xen·o·pho·bi·a /ˌzɛnəˈfoʊbiə, ˌzinə-/ Pronunciation Key - Show Spelled Pronunciation[zen-uh-foh-bee-uh, zee-nuh-] Pronunciation Key - Show IPA Pronunciation –noun an unreasonable fear or hatred of foreigners or strangers or of that which is foreign or strange.

The reason I got stumped was a) I cannot imagine anyone being fearful of foreigners (we are all just people after all) and b) I did not know what the opposite of a xenophobic was so I set out to learn another word. I found it along with a great view of myself.

xen·o·phil·i·a /ˌzɛnəˈfɪliə, ˌzinə-/ Pronunciation Key - Show Spelled Pronunciation[zen-uh-fil-ee-uh, zee-nuh-] Pronunciation Key - Show IPA Pronunciation –noun an attraction to foreign peoples, cultures, or customs.

So there you have it…my new favorite word! Here is to us xenophiles!

Denver, CO

From Barnes and Noble:

One of the first questions people ask about The Things They Carried is this: Is it a novel, or a collection of short stories? The title page refers to the book simply as “a work of fiction,” defying the conscientious reader’s need to categorize this masterpiece. It is both: a collection of interrelated short pieces which ultimately reads with the dramatic force and tension of a novel. Yet each one of the twenty-two short pieces is written with such care, emotional content, and prosaic precision that it could stand on its own.
The Things They Carried depicts the men of Alpha Company: Jimmy Cross, Henry Dobbins, Rat Kiley, Mitchell Sanders, Norman Bowker, Kiowa, and of course, the character Tim O’Brien who has survived his tour in Vietnam to become a father and writer at the age of forty-three. They battle the enemy (or maybe more the idea of the enemy), and occasionally each other. In their relationships we see their isolation and loneliness, their rage and fear. They miss their families, their girlfriends and buddies; they miss the lives they left back home. Yet they find sympathy and kindness for strangers (the old man who leads them unscathed through the mine field, the girl who grieves while she dances), and love for each other, because in Vietnam they are the only family they have. We hear the voices of the men and build images upon their dialogue. The way they tell stories about others, we hear them telling stories about themselves.

This book is an amazing shift between “story-telling” and fictional occurrences. I did not realize when I started the book that it was a compilation of 22 stories. It reads as if it is one interwoven tale however, all the chapters can stand alone. And O’Brien is a gifted writer that keeps the writer engaged and longed to know more.

Although O’Brien keeps mentioning that it’s hard to tell what story is a fictional story versus what is truth (and he further prolongs that thought by reminding the reader that the things that happened during the war were blurred through recollection) the reader doesn’t need to decipher. I actually did not give truth versus fiction any thought until I had finished reading the book.

“The Things They Carried” is an interested and unique tale of life during the Vietnam War. The beginning fascinated me learning about the literal things that each soldier carried with them. And entwined with that is life before, during and after the war.

This book is a great read and I am looking forward to reading more of O’Brien’s books.

[Book club selection]

Denver, CO

Barnes and Noble Synopsis:

The Piper family is steeped in secrets, lies, and unspoken truths. At the eye of the storm is one secret that threatens to shake their lives — even destroy them.

Set on stormy Cape Breton Island off Nova Scotia, Fall on Your Knees is an internationally acclaimed multigenerational saga that chronicles the lives of four unforgettable sisters. Theirs is a world filled with driving ambition, inescapable family bonds, and forbidden love.

Compellingly written, by turns menacingly dark and hilariously funny, this is an epic tale of five generations of sin, guilt, and redemption.

The beginning of this book seems like such a far journey from the end of the book. MacDonald weaves a tale that starts with a young man running away from his life to start a new one. And along the way he falls for a very young girl whom he marries against her family wishes.

The young girl, Materia, is disowned by her family and finds solice in the cliffs by the sea and through a wonderful neighbor that adopts her into their family. The relationship between Materia and her husband James quickly becomes tumultuous and riddled with unhappiness. Unfortunately, that sadness continues for Materia after the birth of her first daughter Kathleen, whom James adores and does everything for.

The remainder of the book is a drama filled saga of the birth of more daughters, the blossoming singing career of Kathleen, the budding illegal business of James, and more death and drama than should be possible within one family. The relationship between the daughters and James each struggle and contain their own unique twisted aspects.

The book is a really entertaining story that leads all over the map of Nova Scotia and New York and through multiple generations of one family that face numerous evils and trials.

[Book club selection]