Cultivating Self-Love: Novels for the Spirit

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Have you ever read a novel that touched you on a deeper level? Think about a story that resonated deeply with you, one that challenged your beliefs, or broadened your philosophy on life. Today, I am going to share with you three novels that I consider to be "spiritual novels," or, as it turns out, what the French would call "contes philosophiques."

The Alchemist by Paolo Coelho

I read this novel for my second-year French class in college. We read it the Spring before I studied abroad, and I can't think of a better book to read before embarking on such an adventure. The story is about a young Andalusian shepherd who embarks on a quest across North Africa for treasure. Along the way, the shepherd meets interesting characters and learns great lessons about life and the treasure found within. Some favorite quotes:

“When we love, we always strive to become better than we are. When we strive to become better than we are, everything around us becomes better too.” 

 “Tell your heart that the fear of suffering is worse than the suffering itself. And that no heart has ever suffered when it goes in search of its dreams, because every second of the search is a second's encounter with God and with eternity.” 

 “We are travelers on a cosmic journey,stardust,swirling and dancing in the eddies and whirlpools of infinity. Life is eternal. We have stopped for a moment to encounter each other, to meet, to love, to share.This is a precious moment. It is a little parenthesis in eternity.” 

The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupery 

This is another book that I read in French, but not for class. I read the book on my own one Summer, to improve my French. What was unexpected was what I learned beyond new vocabulary words. This is yet another story about a young boy making a voyage, but this one is inter-planetary. The Little Prince makes great observations of the way grown-ups live their lives, and reminds us of the children that we all once were. Yet another book filled with quotes to stir the soul:

“You - you alone will have the stars as no one else has them...In one of the stars I shall be living. In one of them I shall be laughing. And so it will be as if all the stars were laughing, when you look at the sky at night...You - only you - will have stars that can laugh.” 

 “The most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or touched, they are felt with the heart.” 

 “All grown-ups were once children... but only few of them remember it.” 

The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein 

I could not write about spiritual books without including one about a dog. I was born in the year of the dog, and I am a dog-lover. I believe that dogs have so much to teach us, and are truly spirit guides in this life. This story is told from the point of view of a dog whose owner is a race car driver. This novel taught me about manifestation, because the driver teaches his dog that in racing, your car goes where your eyes are looking. So in life, where your thoughts are, there is your reality. It is a truly touching story, and you bet it made me give Lucy more attention and cuddles. A few quotes:

“To live every day as if it had been stolen from death, that is how I would like to live. To feel the joy of life, as Eve felt the joy of life. To separate oneself from the burden, the angst, the anguish that we all encounter every day. To say I am alive, I am wonderful, I am. I am. That is something to aspire to.” 

 “That which is around me does not affect my mood; my mood affects that which is around me.” 

 “We too, must shatter the mirrors. We must look in to ourselves and root out the distortions until that thing which we know in our hearts is perfect and true, stands before us.” 

If you haven't read these books before, I cannot recommend them enough. I will warn you, however, that you will need tissue for each one. Frankly, I tear up just thinking about these books and all of the wonderful little lessons tucked within their pages. For me, stories have a unique way of teaching us about life and all of its mysteries, and these stories in particular have affected my spirit on the deepest level.

Your turn- have you read any of these books? Do you have any novels that soothe your soul, or that have taught you a valuable lesson? I'd love to hear from you in the comments below! 

Leave a Comment books, cultivating self love, reading, spirit, The Alchemist, The Art of Racing in the Rain, The Little Prince

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Cultivating Self-Love: Fabulous Friday (January 10 edition)

TGIF, my friends! I hope you have had a wonderful week, and if not, at least it's Friday, right? I have plans to see some live music tonight, weekend brunch plans, and potential wine tasting. It sure helps to get through the work week when I have an exciting weekend to look forward to!

As I'm sure you are aware (and if not, here's a refresher), I am on a year-long quest to cultivate self-love, and this month I am starting with my spirit. As a way to keep track of my progress, I thought I would use my Fabulous Friday posts to check in and see how I'm doing. Please feel free to join me, if you like!

So, what have I done this week to cultivate love for my spirit? 

• I've been doing a daily morning reading of Jesus Calling, which has one entry for every day of the year. I will have to do a separate post outlining my spiritual beliefs (because they're not traditional), but essentially I was raised Baptist, left the church, but didn't leave behind the Christianity. As I read each devotion, which is written as though Jesus were talking, I replace all references to Jesus with the word Love (because Jesus is love, right?). It makes me see things from the perspective of love. So far, I have kept up with this every day, as well as following up with a very short prayer.
• I've been thinking about how I would describe my spirit, and that will have to be its own blog post as well. It helps me to love something I can describe.
• I've started reading I'm Proud of You by Tim Madigan. My heart is being touched in a big way by this book. Our planet was blessed to have Mr. Rogers grace us with his presence for a time. From what I have read so far, he is an example of a truly godly man, filled with so much love for his neighbor.
• I saw the movie About Time during a girls' night out at the Laurelhurst. I almost started crying when the main character talked about the love he felt when he saw his loved ones loving on his child. Lots of love in this movie, and lots of tears. But so beautiful.
  
• I visited my favorite local bookshop, New Renaissance, and picked up a citrine and a peridot. The citrine is supposed to help balance my 3rd chakra, as well as support self-esteem and abundance. Peridot is good for the heart chakra, and releases resentment while opening the heart for joy. I have felt a great amount of energy emanating from these stones, no joke.
• Also from New Renaissance, I picked up a copy of The Fire Starter Sessions by Danielle LaPorte. I had actually gone into the shop looking for Marianne Williamson's A Return to Love, but FSS beckoned me, and I heeded the call.
  
• Speaking of The Fire Starter Sessions, I have begun going through it and I am so inspired! I am learning that the way other people do things is not necessarily how I should be doing things.
  
• I met Nicole who blogs at Treasure Tromp for coffee while she was in town! I had such a great time chatting with her- she is about one of the sweetest people I have met (and also has one of the best blogs to sponsor).
• If I could give my spirit a color this week, I would say it is bright yellow. I am inspired, and I feel confident that I am moving in the right direction in my life. 

Tell me about your week, my friends! How have you cultivated love for your spirit this week? Any great plans this weekend? I'd love to hear from you in the comments below!

Leave a Comment About Time, books, cultivating self love, fabulous fridays, happiness, I'm Proud of You, love, spirit, The Fire Starter Sessions

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I Like to Read: The Paris Wife and Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald

It should be no secret by now that I enjoy a good story. Many of my life's passions can be boiled down to my love of stories, whether it be books, art, podcasts, travel, or people. The best way to connect with me and form a solid relationship is to share your stories with me.

And thus I love reading. And I love reading about writers and the people they loved. Perhaps that is my greater interest- the story of the lover behind the writer. Which is why I read both The Paris Wife and Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald almost back-to-back.

Let me tell you, reading these two stories back-to-back is an excellent choice. Both stories leave you wanting more. Perhaps I should explain.

The Paris Wife is about Hadley Richardson, the first wife of Ernest Hemingway, and Z is about Zelda Fitzgerald, F. Scott Fitzgerald's wife. Both of these women are fascinating characters who were involved in tragic marriages with two of America's best writers of the early 20th century.

While reading The Paris Wife, I was transported to 1920's Paris. You all know how much I love Paris, so this book was a welcome vessel of return. This Paris, however, was seedier, and simply a backdrop to the sad story that is Hadley's marriage. The story is told from her point of view, and given that she is merely Hem's first wife, it is no spoiler that the marriage does not end well. In fact, I spent much of the book hating Hemingway and wishing he would get his act together. He clearly loved Hadley, but alas, he loved himself more.

Zelda's story is similar in that she married a writer who became an alcoholic, but again, as history has shown, it is no spoiler that this marriage remained legally intact for the duration of Scott and Zelda's lives. Sadly, Zelda's story is one of mental illness, which is what ultimately separated Zelda and Scott (she was institutionalized multiple times and died in a fire at her last institution). 

Both of these women were sharp and opinionated, which seems to be what drew their husbands to begin with, but where Hadley seemed happy to live a domestic life, Zelda wanted a career of her own, whether it be writing or dance. When these women's dreams appeared to interfere with the wishes of the husbands, that is where the marriages go downhill.

What I loved about both of these books is the insight into these women's lives, despite these being fictionalized accounts. Women's stories are often brushed under the rug and lost to history, so it is intriguing to consider what the lives of these women must have been like, what their inner worlds must have felt like. And to me, that is the crux of a good story- a glimpse into another person's inner world.

If you haven't read either of these books, I highly recommend them both. They're easy to read, and even easier to get lost in. If you're like me and always looking for a good book recommendation, add these to your to-read list (and you can check out my reading list on Goodreads- or add me as a friend!).

And now, I would like to introduce you to someone else who enjoys reading, Allie of Call Me Sassafrass! I asked Allie a few questions about books and reading, and here are her answers:

What is your favorite book of all time?

My favorite book ever is The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. It's the story of a little girl adopted by a quirky German couple that hides a Jewish man during World War II. Also, the little girl learns to read and steals books from Hitler's book burnings. A book about books! Being German, I feel a connection to World War II literature but this novel especially doesn't feel boring and historical but is really interesting.

What is your favorite recent read?

Recently, I read The Light Between Oceans for the Busy Blogger's Book Club but I'm not going to talk about that one yet! You can read about it on the blog on the 15th and join the next round of the book club!

What do you like about reading?

I've always loved to read. I learned to read very young and have never stopped. I love the opportunities for learning that I get from reading. I do love to read some good memoirs or nonfiction (I recommend Beautiful Boy or The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks) and of course I learn from those. But there's also something to be said about exposing yourself to different lives that you might not have had a chance to understand otherwise. 

To get started, you can read Allie's advice for banishing a funky mood, read about the weird music she listens to, or how she intends to get happy in 90 days. Allie also does graphic design work, which you can check out here! Finally, you can also find Allie on Bloglovin, Twitter, and Facebook. Go show her some love!

And now tell me, what have you been reading lately? I'd love to hear from you in the comments below!

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I Like to Read: Rules of CIvility

Have you ever read a book that you wanted to crawl inside of? To step into the world within the book, and interact with the characters? Have the words of an author ever tugged at your heart with their truth?

That is how I felt about Rules of Civility. I fell hard for this book- for the setting of 1938 New York City, for the cavalier characters, for the richness and truth of the language. My heart was stirred by this book, and that's not a thing I say lightly.

The last time I recall feeling so enraptured by words was when I discovered the writing of Thomas Hardy. There's a man who can so poetically describe the plight of humanity, his words ringing true even after more than a century. Words have such a pull on me, as I find in them comfort and companionship.

Amor Towles' writing in Rules of Civility reminds me a little bit of The Great Gatsby. Here we have a narrator in her mid-twenties, from lower-middle class New York. She is a fairly ambitious woman who knows what she is capable of. Through her eyes, we see the glitz and grit of New York City. We meet characters with greater ambition than she, who are willing to do anything for higher status. We also meet some frivolous bluebloods who are meandering their way through their twenties without any regard to the future. We see great parties and we see destitution, all of which could be found in the Great Gatsby.

To give you an idea of how the language touched me, I would like to share a few quotes with you:

"Old times, as my father used to say: If you're not careful, they'll gut you like a fish."

This quote comes early in the story, referring to a tinge of regret the narrator, Katey, felt after talking with someone who might otherwise have been a flame.

"You see that thirty-year-old blonde next to Jake? That's his fiancee, Carrie Clapboard. Carrie moved all manner of heaven and earth to get into that chair. And soon she will happily oversee scullery maids and table settings and the reupholstering of antique chairs at three different houses; which is all well and good. But if I were your age, I wouldn't be trying to figure out how to get into Carrie's shoes- I'd be trying to figure out how to get into Jake's."

I loved this little flash of feminism, coming from possibly the most feminist character in the novel. 

"Uncompromising purpose and the search for eternal truth have an unquestionable sex appeal for the young and high-minded; but when a person loses the ability to take pleasure in the mundane- in the cigarette on the stoop or the gingersnap in the bath- she has probably put herself in unnecessary danger. What my father was trying to tell me, as he neared the conclusion of his own course, was that this risk should not be treated lightly: One must be prepared to fight for one's simple pleasure and to defend them against elegance and erudition and all manner of glamorous enticements.                      

In retrospect, my cup of coffee has been the works of Charles Dickens. Admittedly, there's something a little annoying about all those plucky underprivileged kids and the aptly named agents of villainy. But I've come to realize that however blue my circumstances, if after finishing a chapter of a Dickens novel I feel a miss-my-stop-on-the-train sort of compulsion to read on, then everything is probably going to be just fine."

 Who hasn't felt that sort of compulsion while reading? And to put things in such clear perspective, it simply makes me feel that everything is probably going to be just fine.

"The romantic interplay we were having wasn't the real game- it was a modified version of the game. It was a version invented for two friends so that they can get some practice and pass the time divertingly while they wait in the station for their train to arrive."

Here the narrator is comparing one of her dalliances with a game said dalliance had just taught her: honeymoon bridge.

"After meeting someone by chance and throwing off a few sparks, can there be any substance to the feeling that you've known each other your whole lives? After those first few hours of conversation, can you really be sure that your connection is so uncommon that it belongs outside the bounds of time and convention? And if so, won't that someone have just as much capacity to upend as to perfect all your hours that follow?"

 Here Towles captures that spark so well- that feeling that acting upon something could bring you either great joy or deep misery. For personal reasons, this quote really spoke to me, and I'm sure anyone who has ever felt that spark knows the truth behind this quote.

Ultimately, I found this to be a novel full of hope, despite many bittersweet circumstances that occur. The ending was satisfying, and I found myself feeling sorry to close the book at the end, wishing to hold onto the story just a little longer. I am sure this is a book I will re-read, and I will be recommending this to anyone who asks (and some who don't) for a while to come.

What was the last book that you feel head-over-heels for? Do you have any book recommendations? I would love to hear from you in the comments below! 

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I Like to Read: Quiet

Just a little lunchtime reading.

Are you an introvert or an extrovert? If you're an introvert, how many times have you been prodded to "come out of your shell?" Or, how many times have you been forced to do group work, when you really shine as a solo worker? Have you ever based career decisions on whether or not a job is for introverts or extroverts?

These are some of the questions brought up in my mind as I read Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking, by Susan Cain.

The book starts out by talking about American society's bias toward extroversion, to the extent that the self-help industry has an entire niche aimed at helping people overcome introversion, like it's some kind of impediment to living a fulfilling life. I had never considered before that one need not be considered better than the other, but that's precisely what happens when you grow up in a culture that favors extroverts. After reading the first part of the book, I wanted to copy it and mail it to every person who ever asked me to come out of my shell, or who wondered aloud why I was so quiet.

What it all boils down to is that introversion is a preference toward a certain amount of solitude and quiet. Alternately, it is a matter of how one responds to stimuli. I know I become quite overstimulated in loud, active environments, and I do my best thinking on my own. It's not that I don't like being around people- quite the opposite. I just need a certain amount of down time after being around people for an extended period of time.

There were times in the book that I questioned whether or not I really was an introvert. I enjoy public speaking and performing (karaoke and bellydance), and Susan Cain never once mentioned introverts who enjoy performing (Michael Jackson being a prime example). She did talk about people whose jobs required that they act extroverted, but I would have loved to learn more about how creative professionals use introversion and extroversion, and why. I'm terribly nervous when I perform, but I still love doing it, and I'd love to understand why that is.

What I appreciated most about this book was that it told me that it's ok to need time alone. I'm known to be a bit snappy when people intrude on my alone time. I recall a recent episode wherein I'd had a pretty stressful day and commute, and when I arrived home to my apartment, I couldn't unlock my door. My new landlord had put a new lock on, and had actually moved into my old roommate's bedroom so that he could turn it into a studio. I was terribly uncomfortable with this, because my home space is sacred. As I was trying to unlock my door, the landlord came out and started talking to me. I was pissed off that my door wouldn't open, and I was in a hurry to get to my bellydance class. I told my landlord this in very clipped words, and he just fumbled around with the lock. Once it was all situated, I hurried up to change and get out my door, and as I turned on my car, my landlord came to my window and pestered me some more. I seriously just wanted to be left alone- I often don't want to talk after work. I was probably very rude to him, but I felt that my sacred space had been invaded, and I simply could not handle it. I was way overstimulated. And it's not my fault that I am this way. I am not a bad person for this. Before reading this book, I would have thought that it was all my fault and that I was just a bitch.

Introversion is not equal to bitchiness.

Thank God for Quiet.

Where do you stand on the introversion/extroversion scale? Have you read this book? I would love to hear from you in the comments below!

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I Like to Read: The Book Thief

Have you ever read a book, and as you approach the end of the book, you try to slow down your reading so that you can delay the end? That's what I tried to do with The Book Thief (tried because it was really hard to not keep reading).

I'm probably a little late to The Book Thief train, but I don't care. I loved it. I was hooked by Markus Zusak's writing. This book is classified as young adult, and I'm beginning to think that maybe YA books are the best, because they are so imaginative. What made this book so interesting is that it was narrated by Death, and it takes place in Germany during World War II.

I never realized it until I read this book, but much of the culture that I have been exposed to that deals with World War II has mainly been about the Holocaust. Most people read Anne Frank's diary in school, and so we learn a lot about what life was like for Jews under Hitler's reign. But what would life have been like for a little German non-Jew during that time? This book gives you an idea.

The book starts out when the main character, Liesel, is nine years old. She is sent to live with foster parents shortly after her younger brother's death. Liesel starts off as shy and afraid, but with the help of her foster father, Hans, she turns into a brave little girl. Liesel arrived at the Hubermann household completely illiterate, but with a stolen book. Hans makes sure that Liesel learns how to read under his tutelage.

When a Jew, Max, comes to hide in their basement, Liesel really blossoms. Liesel was plagued by nightmares, and when she learned that Max had nightmares too, she felt like she was not so alone, that she had found a kindred spirit. Eventually, Max writes for Liesel and encourages the writer within her, asking her to describe the world outside to him.

This is a book-lover's book, showing the power of words. It is about a book thief, after all. And words certainly held sway in Nazi Germany. Given how much I love words and books, I couldn't not love this book. I highly recommend this book to anyone and everyone.

Have you read The Book Thief? Have you ever read a book that you did not want to end? I'd love to hear from you in the comments below!

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