Book Review "How to Thrive in Changing Times"

When I signed up to review this book, I expected that it would help the reader become resilient. But as I read, I quickly realized I was mistaken. Yet I was not disappointed, because as the book's subtitle suggests, it aims to offer "simple tools to create true health, wealth, peace, and joy for yourself and the earth."

I enjoyed several sections. Her discussion on page 40 of "words as seeds" was perhaps my favorite part of this book -- a moving revelation to me.

On page 97, she implies that it's been scientifically proven that gratitude can help the immune system. It's inspiring, although there are no references to any supporting studies.

The "Gratitude Walk" on page 102 involves appreciating the beauty in nature and being thankful for it. It occurred to me that my love of nature photography is my way of appreciating the beauty in nature.

She discusses the practice of transfiguration (transmuting environmental pollution) at the beginning of chapter 7 (pages 134 to 138). She describes experiments in which her group lowered the ph of a toxic base solution, but again cites no references. In another experiment, she describes how the auric field of a peach was improved. Photos of the auric field were produced with a gas discharge visualization (GDV) camera and can be seen on a website.

The book's small size belies its lengthy content. It does this with smaller margins and small font size for the "Practice" text. As well, there's no bibliography or index and a simple one-page Table of Contents.

If read with motivation and an open mind, this will strike you as a inspiring gem of a book.

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• This review was posted to LibraryThing on 2010-02-23.
• More reviews can be found here.
• I received a free copy of this book in order to write this review.
  
• As an associate of Amazon.com, I receive a small cash award for each click-through-purchase of "How to Thrive in Changing Times: Simple Tools to Create True Health, Wealth, Peace, and Joy for Yourself and the Earth".
  

Train Station Drawing

On her blog Long Island Daily Photo, Lily Hydrangea posted a picture that includes the Farmingdale train station. It's the building on the left.

Very many years ago, I created a pencil sketch of that building, which you can see below.



This was done on something like 11" x 17" sketchbook paper, so rather than scan it, I had to photograph it.

About two years ago, I decided to throw out all my old artwork. But first, I went about scanning / photographing it. For some reason, my daughter liked this piece best of all, so it's the only piece of art I saved from that time period.

As I wrote earlier, I didn't really see the subjects of my drawings. This is evidence of that.

Just thought someone might find this interesting!

Shadow Shot Sunday Tree Fairy

A small statue of a tree fairy cast this week's shadow....

Wednesday Weigh-In 20100217

Weighing in the day after Fat Tuesday. I did have two donuts, a cookie and some chocolate....

Waist = 38.5"
Height = 5' 9"

References:

1. Wikipedia BMI page
2. Tanita Scale with Body Fat monitor
3. Javascript must be enabled to view the data.

SDI: Re-Using Used Headlights

I've replaced the Halogen bulb in my wife's Ford Escort headlights many times. The high beam part is usually good; only the low beam filament blows.

My idea is to use these "useless" bulbs as light sources for work lamps or as auxiliary illumination for photography. They can run on a 12 volt battery (so the lamp can be portable) and the light spectrum of halogen is a higher quality than incandescent or fluorescent bulbs.

The main issue will be to devise a lens to protect the bulb, which can shatter easily if it gets wet.

Introducing My Scanner Daybook

The Scanner Daybook is a special notebook that Barbara Sher describes in Refuse to Choose!: Use All of Your Interests, Passions, and Hobbies to Create the Life and Career of Your Dreams.

The idea is that there are certain people whom Barbara calls "Scanners." They¹ have several interests or get ideas for new projects while working on old projects. The Scanner Daybook, modeled after Leonardo DaVinci's notebook, allows a scanner to briefly jot down a new idea in order to:

• Not forget about it.
• Satisfy an immediate craving for the idea.
• Stay focused on a current project.

This is relevant to me because I consider myself a scanner, and I decided to use part of this blog for my Scanner Daybook.

The wild imaginings in my Scanner Daybook aren't meant to be entertaining. So feel free to skip these posts entirely.

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¹ Or "We," really.

Howard the Spirit Guide

My wife enjoys reading Sylvia Browne. If I'm between books, I'll read them, too, as you can see from my LibraryThing collection. I enjoy them because they're easy to read, entertaining and a bit thought-provoking, but I don't take them too seriously.

In the latest book that I'm reading, Contacting Your Spirit Guide, Sylvia writes about her spirit guide, Francine, and how you can meet your own spirit guide. (A spirit guide is an entity who is assigned to help you through your time on Earth.) She provides meditations (which are really just daydreams) that are meant to help you find out who your spirit guide is.

I'd gotten to the meditation part of the book late Thursday evening. I was incredibly relaxed. Barely awake, I read the first exercise, effortlessly visualizing as I went along (as I always do with non-technical books). I experienced (in my mind's eye) the warm, secluded beach, the palm tree that I sat against, the sand that I dug my toes into, the tropical sun that drenched me with warmth, the slow rhythm of the waves, etc. Right on cue, my spirit guide came out toward me. He was a tall, large black man with a head that was small compared to his body, the hair on it (the head, that is) short and black. He was wearing an white suit with a maroon turtle neck shirt, incongruous for the beach. Through a brief telepathic exchange, I found out that his name is Howard.

Since then, I can sense him nearby. But I don't actually see him as Sylvia can. He road with me to and from work, his head sticking through the roof of my wife's compact car. But I hardly talk to him the way Sylvia talks with Francine. I'm not really interested in finding out anything about "my chart" or past lives. I'm not sure I'd believe any of it anyway.

My wife spent hours with candles burning and mind-numbingly soft music playing, yet she could not meet her guide. My daughter couldn't do it, either, although I'm not sure how much time and effort she put into it. So my wife and daughter want me to find out who their spirit guides are because, at this point, they think their spirit guides abandoned them. I think I sensed that my wife's spirit guide is female, but that's all I could get. I suspect her spirit guide just got so frustrated from my wife not paying attention (and doing the opposite of what she's told) that she might've abandoned her.

So that's what I've been up to lately. How about you?