I just came across this excellent website that reviews YA fiction. If you’re looking for something good to read, check it out:
happiness complications August 6, 2011
Last week I commented on this quote,
“Happiness is a quality of mind. It is something we possess within…if we do not have it within, nothing outside can give it to us.”
– Paramananda
My parting line was “Happiness is a choice.” I have to provide a corollary to that.
A significant portion of our population can’t make that choice. They suffer from dysthymia, a chronic depression that impacts their ability to be optimistic, recognize good things, find joy, and believe the best.
Those people have to choose happiness in a roundabout way, by accepting a need to seek treatment for their depression. If you are one of those people who is never interested in anything, have trouble concentrating, believe nothing good is coming in your life, and you’ve ‘always been this way.’ Then perhaps you have dysthymia. It’s important to see your doctor, because it can be managed with medication. You have to be responsible for your life: you want it to be the best it can be. Investigate your options. See your doctor.
Choose happiness.
one life? August 5, 2011
I received this tweet from @Libarbarian Peter Bailey:
“Anyone who says they have only one life to live must not know how to read a book”.
How true is that? This is the best way to explain why we love to read, isn’t it?
If someone isn’t a reader, he is never going to be able to see other perspectives, choices and possibilities as well as someone who’s had the opportunity to live through them in a character’s life.
We have lifetimes to explore, and between the pages of a book, we can experience them all. It gives us a wider range of tools to draw on as we sort out our own complicated lives. Reading is practice for reality.
Quatrain August 4, 2011
Reality is a dream awoken
Truth is perception spoken
Wisdom is a lifetime’s token
Grace is long love unbroken
car game… August 3, 2011
When you are on a long drive, it’s a good opportunity to talk to your mate. It’s hard to find time in our busy every day lives to actually have uninterrupted conversation. You can discuss difficult subjects, because no one can walk out. It’s also an opportunity to discuss really positive stuff without being overheard. Privacy is great in a car driving through the Rockies.
I invented a game on our last road trip. We had just had one of those ‘hard conversations’ and needed to re-establish some positive feeling.
The frame was,
“Dear XXXX. One thing I appreciate about you is…”
example, “Dear OJ. One thing I appreciate about you is how there is never any food left on our counters.”
Then it’s the other person’s turn to use the same frame to respond.
example, “Dear Mommy. One thing I appreciate about you is how you always leave tasty snacks in unexpected places, like your purse, as special presents just for me.”
At the end of the trip, we felt pleasantly attached to one another, and thoroughly valued and appreciated. These are very important aspects of relationship maintenance.
plop-ripple-ripple-ripple August 2, 2011
Today I’m thinking about the small “what if” moments that change our world. A small decision can alter the universe, because it has a ripple effect.
For example, about 2 years ago I was reading a blog written by my nephew in Alberta. I had the rambling thought, ‘he reminds me of Violet.’ Violet was one of my students a couple years before. Over the next few weeks I was reading Violet’s writings, and his writings, and the thought just kept getting stronger. Those who follow the ‘mind your own business’ school of thought, would have just left it there.
Eventually, I gave up fighting it. I made a small decision.
I asked each of them if they’d like an introduction. At the least, they’d enjoy each other’s literary and philosophical observations. They agreed. One September day they were introduced via Facebook. He lived about 700 km away from her, but they wrote frequently. They did enjoy each other’s literary and philosophical ramblings. A lot.
In October he came to meet her. He had a dozen red roses in hand.
In November she went to meet his friends and family.
In December he came to meet her family and experience a completely different Christmas than he was used to.
and so the ripples spread…
In the spring came an engagement, and last October there came a wedding.
Today, I am meeting a very tiny person. A sweet, baby girl is a lovely ripple in our world.
Kind of awe inspiring, isn’t it?
The end of the bookstore August 1, 2011
I love bookstores. I love wandering in them. I love scanning titles. I love the smell of ink and paper. I love the graphics of gorgeous covers. I love horses, too. They’re majestic creatures. Riding one is fun, but I prefer to go to Vancouver by car.
Times change. It’s not a value judgment; it’s a fact.
Here is an excellent article by Dave Bricker about the changing publishing world. He ruminates about the bankruptcy of Borders Bookstores and the future. Hint: it’s ebooks!
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A World Without Borders – The End of the Bookstore
Harry Potter vs. Twilight July 31, 2011
This quote is making the rounds of Facebook statuses these days:
”Harry Potter is about doing what’s right in the face of adversity. Twilight is about how important it is to have a boyfriend.”- Stephen King
With all due respect, Mr. King. I disagree. That is a weak, simplistic statement simply designed to create controversy. It is also completely erroneous.
Twilight is about the power of love, just like Harry Potter is.
In Harry Potter, you see this power in Snape’s obsessive love for Lily. That love was a fundamental component that weaves through the entire series. In Twilight, the mutual obsession of Edward and Bella drives the plot. In both series, the obsession leads to protection. Edward fights to protect Bella. Snape’s obsession with Lily protects Harry, though secretively.
The theme of love as protection is another theme the two series have in common. Lily’s sacrificial love for Harry provides the blood protection that allows him to survive amid constant threat. The same concept applied when he sacrificed himself for those fighting at Hogwarts. Edward fights to protect Bella. Jacob fights to protect Bella. Both would have willingly died for her. Because of love, Bella trains to be able to protect everyone. Because of love she endures pain to develop her gift and fight to protect the Cullens and the Quileute wolves.
Harry Potter is about doing what’s right in the face of adversity, sure. Being willing to sacrifice yourself for the good of the world is a pretty amazing thing. However, Twilight shares this theme. In New Moon, Edward chooses to sacrifice his happiness for what he considers a better life for Bella. His choice nearly destroys them both, because their love is too powerful to allow them to be separate. Adversity takes many forms.
Twilight is about how important it is to have a boyfriend? No way. It’s about how having the right life mate fills your world with pain and joy in equal measure. It’s about how the challenges of a relationship (like wanting to eat your true love, for example) need to be worked on, but that those challenges can be overcome. It’s about how overcoming those challenges is worthwhile. It’s about how learning to be together can make life more complete.
Harry Potter knew that, too. When he got through with the task of destroying Voldemort, he married Ginny. He knew love was important to have in his life. That was the whole point of defeating Voldemort, after all.
Peace and love. They both take effort. Twilight and Harry Potter are different, but they come to the same conclusions.
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PS. They are the same conclusions that Grace discovers in Grace Awakening
Happiness is July 30, 2011
”Happiness is a quality of mind. It is something we possess within…if we do not have it within, nothing outside can give it to us.”
– Paramananda
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Profound, eh?
I think of it in terms of those choices that I’ve been blogging about lately. We choose to be happy. You hear people every day grumbling about this and that minor complaint all the time. You’d think the entire world was conspiring against them. Then you meet someone who has a happy heart, but is an invalid, or lives in third world poverty. Every day is struggle. The struggle could have worn them into bitterness, but here they are smiling and joyful. Why? Not because their troubles are less than yours, for in fact, their troubles are infinity greater than yours. They are smiling and joyful because they choose to be.
That’s all.
Happiness is not something to pursued, constantly running ahead, just out of reach.
Happiness is something to embrace in every moment.
Happiness is a choice.
Shawn L. Bird 
My candle burns at both ends. August 8, 2011
Becca Givens offered this prompt for Carry On Tuesdays the beginning of July:
Edna St. Vincent Millay’s poem was the original prompt.
Her version goes like this:
My candle burns at both ends
It will not last the night;
But ah, my foes, and oh, my friends –
It gives a lovely light.
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My version goes like this:
My candle burns at both ends
Past midnight sees it burning
but morning comes and tends
to make me wish some learning
Would make my schedule match
the rest of my time zone
but in a silent house I catch
adventures of my own.
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