Words from the Heart

The Suicide Letters of Jack Monroe  by Mary Maurice is a psychological journey travelled through the letters of Jack and a woman named Susan Jordan. From his first letter to Susan, the reader is drawn into a web of intrigue and mystery. Who is Jack and why is he writing so prolifically to Susan?  Why does she take so long to answer him?  Author, Mary Maurice's poetic prose of her descriptions of the Southwest cast a gentle light on the weighty subject of suicide. The letters read as if someone is speaking to you, personally, pulling the reader into the drama.  If you enjoy psychological mysteries, this book will certainly get your Jungian sensibilities peeked. I enjoy mysteries, which is why I signed up to host this book for its maiden blog tour.  A warning, though: as I read through the chapters, I quickly realized that this was also a psychological drama that might cause issues for those with PTSD. There are portrayals of the suicide of a pare...

No matter where we go in life, we must deal with people, events and things that may or may not be difficult. Having the right "tools" at hand makes our journey less stressful and much more fulfilling. Our guest writer, Lorraine Ash shares her tips on what to take in our spiritual backpacks during Life's journey as we participate in the WOW! Women on Writing blog tour for her new book, Self and Soul: On Creating a Meaningful Life . In this uplifting memoir, Lorraine Ash uses her own life experiences to explore inner landscapes where the seeds of divine healing and insight reside. These are the landscapes on which we create our own meaning and find the resiliency to thrive in a changing and challenging world.    Photo credit: ©Asdf_1 | Dreamstime.com     Today, Lorraine answers for us the question, "What is in your spiritual backpack?"   Any traveler, from a hiker to a spiritual seeker, loves talking about maps, directions, and roads trav...

I don't often review books, mainly because I think people should read books and decide whether they are relevant to them rather than taking the word of someone else.  However, I am making an exception with Beyond Belief: The Secret Lives of Women in Extreme Religions, an anthology of stories by women from a wide and diverse range of religious communities.  I learned of this book through Women on Writing , who are sponsoring the Beyond Belief Blog Tour. The first thing that hit me was the use of the word extreme.  What, I thought, was an "extreme" religion?  As an interfaith minister, I had some ideas, but like most judgements, they were my own personal feelings.  So, I delved into the introduction to the book written by the editors, Susan Tive and Cami Ostman.   Susan and Cami tell the readers in their introduction about how "women living life inside extreme religions have much in common despite their differences of practice and belief." ...

Today, I am pleased to have as a guest blogger, Elaine Drennon Little, who is taking part in a Women on Writing (WOW) Blog Tour.  Elaine is a writer and educator.  She writes as passionately as she teaches.  Her new book, A Southern Place , tells the story of a young woman and her search for connections and her fight for life. But, Elaine isn't writing about her book, exactly.  Instead, she is sharing her thoughts on Creative Arts Programs in Schools as an educator, as well as a writer. Welcome, Elaine! The Arts Education Network has the following sentence at the top of their website: Learning and participation in music, dance, theater, and the visual arts are vital to the development of our children and our communities. This topic is paramount to me as an educator, but also as a student of the arts.    I was one of those nerdy kids who was always the last chosen for sports teams; I often feigned illness on “field day.” However, my chorus...

All my cherubs being silly Finding the music in life requires making a choice to see beauty rather than the ugliness.  I have often been accused of wearing rose-colored glasses, because I choose to look for the music, to listen for the counter-point and to dance my way along the road. Finding the music is easier when one has a full backpack of joyous tools.  My tools are family, friends, nature, Spirit, and the arts.  Little reminders come at the strangest times, usually when I need them most.  Little things like a yellow butterfly - a reminder of my Mom, or a line from a poem.  Little things like the way my grandchildren call my name, or how a dear friend will phone, out of the blue. May you find the music in your life and may it fill you with joy, especially when the rest of the world is out of tune! Namasté!   Today’s post is in participation with Women On Writing’s mass-blogging event, Everybody is Talking About Finding the Music i...