"Outlander", by Diana Gabaldon ***** <-- Five Stars

Here is my review of this excellent book:

I have been spending the New Year Holiday time reading books. I'm using my kindle, and enjoy it of course, though wish it had more functionality like an iPad, but not the bulk. It would be nice to have more than just books. I'm reading "Outlander". Well, I finished #1, and just the other day bought #2, otherwise known as "Dragonfly in Amber". And I must say these are the best books I have read in a long time (historical fiction, books, that is). Very very good!

They have everything: sex, death, love, religion, family, pregnancy, FOOD!, intrigue, swordplay, witchburnings, history, fompiness, buggery, torture, sex, horseback riding, skullduggery, seasickness, time travel, chauvanism, chivalry, deceipt, adultery, intrigue, mystery, assassination, filth, medicine, emprisonment, homosexuality, romance, humour, Scotland, traditions, male-female conflict, and on and on ad infinitum.

You laugh, cry, feel anger, stress, relief, and go through the entire gamut of emotions, and back again. Just like Bilbo, "There and back again", or Alice, "through the looking glass" (and back?) I highly recommend getting it. It is not "fantasy" as it takes place in real historic scotland (France in #2) which makes you kind of forget where you are when you close the book for the night. It leaves you blinking and looking at a calendar to remind yourself you are in 2011, not 1744.

It's good! If you haven't yet read it, or if you have a new kindle and wonder what might be a good book to read (hint hint), then I recommend this book. But be careful! It is pretty much impossible to stop at the first book, because those damn sneaky publishers put in a chapter to the second book and it hooks you! Damn them! Even though the story finishes in the first, I really loved the way everything was described, and how the main character, Claire, expresses everything with her modern 1946 English expressions and perspective when viewing the Scottish Highlands of 1744.

The Four Agreements

Rating:	★★★★
Category:	Books
Genre:	Health, Mind & Body
Author:	Don Miguel Ruiz

Nancy sent me this great 138 page book on Toltec Wisdom.

I started reading the book today and I finished it late this afternoon. It was really nice. I hate to make it sound like I'm belittling (which I'm not), but I can't help but to feel the proper expression is...

"It's a really nice little book that takes sound principles for a healthy outlook on life, and explains them clearly and concisely."

I enjoyed reading this and found it to be a refreshing way of looking at the same concept we read about in "The Secret", "The Secret of the Ages", "A New Earth" and basically all of these kind of "New Age Healing" genre. I really enjoyed it.

I also am amazed that the stuff he talks about, telling people to tell everyone "I love you!" even if you don't know them and love them personally, is the same thing I have been trying to do here on the blogs! I came to the same conclusion independently from this, but it's really really nice to see another culture confirming what came to me through the Universe.

Here are the Four Agreements:

1) Be Impeccable With Your Word - Speak with integrity. Say only what you mean. Avoid using the word sto speak against yourself or to gossip about others. Use the power of your word in the direction of truth and love.

2) Don't Take Anything Personally - Nothing others do is because of you. What others say and do is a projection of their own reality, their own dream (we live in a dream world that has been created and perpetuated before we existed, and we are all in a fog). When you are immune to the opinions and actions of others, you won't be the victim of needless suffering.

3) Don't Make Assumptions - Find the courage to ask questions and to express what you really want. Communicate with others as clearly as you can to avoid misunderstandings, sadness, and drama. With just this one agreement, you can completely transform your life.


And the best one of all that ties them all together...

4) Always Do Your Best - Your best is going to change from moment to moment; it will be different when you are healthy as opposed to sick. Under any circumstance, simply do your best and you will avoid self-judgement, self-abuse, and regret.

Simply said, extremely difficult to achieve due to our programming and reinforcement of the programming from birth, but #4 allows us to make mistakes, fall of the wagon, learn from our mistakes, get up and try try again until little by little it gets easier and our teeeny weeny successes gradually eat up the big failures until we are succeeding more than we are failing.

It's also nice because often people misuse "I always say what I mean" as an excuse to say things that HURT others, just because it's true. This goes against these Four Agreements because you need to say things IN LOVE. This means that you need to find a way to express the things you want to say in a loving, kind way without "blasting them with the truth".

I love you!

Soul Food

An introduction to the book "The Four Agreements" sent to me by PC (thank you, PC!)

It will be interesting because I have never read any books like this from Mexico.

I love you!

Anger and the Indigo Child

Rating:	★★★★
Category:	Books
Genre:	Health, Mind & Body
Author:	Dianne Lancaster

"Anger and the Indigo Child" on Amazon.com

I enjoyed this book. Because it talked so much about anger I often had to put it down because it left me with some unease inside. I'm often sensitive to things in that way. I know it's weird but I guess I am just sensitive.

Anyway, I still won't say that the Indigo Child exists, or doesn't exist. This book does not try to prove to the reader or validate their existence. It is based on their existence and talks about how parents and indigo children can improve their situation and manage the often explosive and very destructive rage that many of them have pent up inside.

When I read this, I found that rather than reading it for how to help these children, often the author was writing to us, the adult, and showing us what kind of patterns have led to our frustrations, anger, sadness, sometimes rage in our life. It was a very good eye opener and I am grateful to Sheila for sending it to me.

If you ever find yourself "crying over everything", or feeling uncontrollable rage, or anger that is not suited to a certain situation (eg. exploding and totally losing it when a child drops and breaks a plate... again), feeling tense for unknown reasons more often than you should be... or just ... supressing your anger because you were taught it isn't good to get angry (isn't that what we were all taught?) then this book is for you.

I think that for me the takeaway from this book is this:

Anger is an important emotion that is used to create a change in a situation or environment when our needs are not being met and we cannot change the situation through love, for whatever reason. At these times it is important to express the anger, to invoke the change and get our needs met.

Unmet needs lead to anger, and unexpressed anger builds up inside, which will turn into rage and sadness. These can lead to emotional dysfunction and downward spirals that entrench themselves in our neural net which causes them to perpetuate, leading us down the path of continued anger and rage.

Anger is short-lived and non-enduring. It is meant to dissipate as soon as it is expressed. Love, on the other hand is enduring and long lasting and as soon as our anger is expressed, if our needs are discussed and met, we return to love. But if we hold back that anger, it really messes us up.

214 pages of reading (with references, etc. beyond that), I would recommend giving it a try to expand your understanding of self, and try to improve your own self-love.

Oh, one more thing they talk about! If you always sacrifice yourself and your needs for others (including children), your needs are not getting met and your self-love decreases. When this happens your unmet needs lead to anger, and it becomes impossible to give love to those who need it (children especially). Therefore, if you wish to raise them with love, you MUST attend to your needs as well and discard the old belief of "parents must sacrifice themselves completely for their children". If your children happen to be Indigos, they will disrespect you and end up hating you for not loving yourself, and giving yourself respect, and time accordingly. That is profound.

I love you!

Cam