2 posts tagged “life lessons”

Five books that changed my life

 

1. The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz – I could go on..but I already have

 

 

2. Conversations with God by Neale Donald Walsch– I love the entire Trilogy, but, the first one made me brave enough to question what I thought I believed up until that point.

  It was a defining turning point in my life and started my journey to find my own truth and answer my own questions.  I still haven’t seen the Movie.

 

 

 

 

 

3. Smart Women by Judy Blume – I read this book when I was about 13. 

It was the first Adult Book I read and gave me my first insights into Real Life Relationships and an honest look at the types of things I could expect. 

 

 

 

 

 

4. The Road Less Traveled by M. Scott Peck – My Mom owned a copy of this book and I just picked it up one day and started reading it. 

 I was just out of high school when I read it and it planted the first seedlings that Life was indeed a journey of personal growth and it was up to me to grow consciously or live by default.

 

 

 

5. Helter Skelter by Vincent Bugliosi – I had to read this for a Business Law class (relevance??). 

Anyway, it was the only assignment I did willingly in that class.  My first look into the criminal mind, how people can be manipulated and brainwashed and my first introduction to the phrase PIGS in reference to Cops. It made me aware of the cult cultures.   I read that book twice…never saw the movie.  It was just so dang interesting. 

 

What are YOUR Top 5 Life Changing Books????

 

“I can remember stories, those things my mother said
She told me fairy tales, before I went to bed
She spoke of happy endings, then tucked me in real tight
She turned my night light on, and kissed my face good night

My mind would fill with visions, of perfect paradise
She told me everything, she said he'd be so nice
He'd ride up on his horse and, take me away one night
I'd be so happy with him, we'd ride clean out of sight

 

She never said that we would, curse, cry and scream and lie
She never said that maybe, someday he'd say goodbye

The story ends, as stories do
Reality steps into view
No longer living life in paradise-or fairy tales”
- Anita Baker “Fairy Tales”

I don’t want my kids to ever look back on their childhood and feel like I’ve lied to them about the ways of the world.  Sometimes that means being overly honest about Real Life situations (ie no money certain extra curricular activities, toys, candy  because of the rent or light bills being due)…other times it just means Reading original Brother’s Grimm adaptations in lieu of the more Disneyfied versions of fairy tales.

I learned some of life’s greatest lessons from Aesop’s fables…early bird gets the worm, slow and steady wins the race, do not loose what you have to get what you think you want…  Fairy tales have all these magnificent truths wrapped up in beautiful big bows of hope and love and happily ever afters.

 

My favorite Musical of all time (and I have a lot of them…lol) is Into the Woods.  For the unfamiliar, it is a musical culmination of fairy tales, interlacing the stories of Cinderella, Jack and the Bean Stalk,  The Baker and his Wife, and Little Red Riding Hood (interspersed with Sleeping Beauty, Rapunzel) .  No One is Alone (the former AIDS crusade theme) is taken from this musical.  Written by the Fantabulous Stephen Sondheim…of whom I am also a HUGE HUGE fan!  (how can you NOT Love Sunday in the Park with George???  “He needs me…I mean he kneads me…like Dough…..George…)  Ah yes, and a Gloriously horrible Witch played by the Insanely talented (and somewhat Vain but who cares) Bernadette Peters.

 

One exceptional song, Moments in the Woods, is performed by the Baker’s Wife, after she’s had a brief ..ahem…affair with Prince Charming (already married to Cinderella at this point).  She’d been feeling blah about her very safe life as a Baker’s wife….needed a little excitement...and found it in the Woods.   When it is over, she can’t believe what she’s done, how she felt and how it has changed her perspective on love and life:

 

BAKER'S WIFE
What was that?

Was that me?
Was that him?
Did a Prince really kiss me?
And kiss me?
And kiss me?
And did I kiss him back?

Was it wrong?
Am I mad?
Is that all?
Does he miss me?
Was he suddenly
Getting bored with me?

Wake up! Stop dreaming.
Stop prancing about the woods.
It's not besseming.
What is it about the woods?

Back to life, back to sense,
Back to child, back to husband,
You can't live in the woods.
There are vows, there are ties,
There are needs, there are standards,
There are shouldn'ts and shoulds.

Why not both instead?
There's the answer, if you're clever:
have a child for warmth,
And a Baker for bread,
And a Prince for whatever-
Never!
It's these woods.

Face the facts, find the boy,
Join the group, stop the Giant-
Just get out of these woods.
Was that him? yes it was.
Was that me? No it wasn't,
Just a trick of the woods.

Just a moment,
One peculiar passing moment...
Must it all be either less or more,
Either plain or grand?
Is it always "or"?
Is it never "and"?
That's what woods are for:
For those moments in the woods...

Oh. if life were made of moments,
Even now and then a bad one-!
But if life were only moments,
Then you'd never know you had one.

First a Witch, then a child,
Then a Prince, then a moment-
Who can live in the woods?
And to get what you wish,
Only just for a moment-
These are dangerous woods...

Let the moment go...
Don't forget it for a moment, though.
Just remembering you've had and "and",
When you're back to "or",
Makes the "or" mean more
Than it did before.
Now I understand-

And it's time to leave the woods.

 

And then….she is crushed by Jack’s Giant and dies….and thus is the way of the world.