3 X 5's: Index Card Wisdom from Best of Books

PURPOSE & HAPPINESS Matthew McKay, Sean O'Laoire, and Ralph Met (2013).  WHY?  What your life is telling you about who you are and why you're here. I got turned on to Sean O'Laoire's message about life through a batgap.com interview: https://batgap.com/page/2/ (scroll down the page for the interview)...O'Laoire's spirituality challenges some of my beliefs, but i find his perspective refreshing, holistic, and well thought out. I wanted to read something by him, and this book seemed like a good start even though he is one of three authors. Real happiness and joy is living your purpose, even in the midst of pain...grabbing more pleasure and avoiding pain won't bring real happiness and joy...our body is a space suit while we live on earth, and the consciousness that resides in our body will outlive your body...our primary mission is LOVE...to see the other, be kind, protect, find worth, seek intuitive wisdom... For me my purpose is to first LOVE everyone and...

FENG SHUI Jes T. Yl. Lim (2017). A Guide To High Vitality. Grandmaster Lim founded a Feng Shui center in the 1980s, a Feng Shui institute in the 1990s, and taught courses in Feng Shui in 15 countries...he proposed this book as the first of 12 book, but my search on the Amazon shows that he never wrote another book! Instead he has a website, courses, and consults. Much of the "science" of Lim's claims about Feng Shui benefits are based on kinesiology muscle testing of qi energy...i'm not sure how replicable this is, but the proof is in the results, if it helps people, then good. Feng Shui started with a sage's vision of a horse and turtle coming out of the Ho river with markings on their backs which became the basis of the I Ching and Feng Shui. The emperors of old China practiced Feng Shui in secret before Feng Shui filtered down to the common with the people. Feng Shui includes 12 disciplines. The book covers the first 5. Topics covered include qi energy, yin and...

GOD WITHIN Jon M. Sweeney (Ed.) (2001). God Within:                                                            Future as Told by Today's New Adults How dated the phrase "today's new adults" seems in 2023...22 years after the publication of the book...those "new adults" of 18-20 are now 40-42 years old! and the current "younger generation" is a digital one that Marc Prensky talks about in his book EMPOWERED. Time aside, there are still lessons to be gleaned from this collection of stories. It seems that most of these "young adult stories" (told by the young adults and not Sweeney) struggle with the term "religion" as beliefs and rituals and yearn for a spiritually that is real, felt, and meaningful...i would guess that's still true of youth today.  The stories as a whole show youth that are honest in their stru...

COM HEALTH CARE Margaret Willis (2009)(ed). Communicating Spirituality                                               in Health Care. this is a collection of articles written by communication scholars on spirituality and health care...my big beef with the book is that it is long on description and explanation but short on how to help anyone in any kind of pragmatic way...what good does it do to have all these theories and studies if we can't help relieve anyone's suffering? i was attracted to the book because one of the articles was written by a former classmate in graduate school Roxanne Parrot... of all the articles, the closest that gets at something practical is the chapter on Richard Schulze's natural cure for right eating, elimination, and positive thinking to boost the immune system, but again, short on the "how to"...i would recommend a different book for the pr...

JACK LALANNE Steven Kaminsky (2020). Anything is Possible:                                                     The Jack LaLanne Story. Kaminsky is a fitness trainer, body builder, and Jack is one of his heroes. Kaminsky provides a historical context on fitness and the events and times of Jack without telling much about Jack...overall, there was more context than content for me. The three main ideas of Jack's philosophy about exercise, nutrition, and positive attitude did come through. The best chapter that provided me with insights into Jack's methods, character, and principles was Chapter 9 called "Jack in the Box" which is an account of the Jack LaLanne televisions show. Overall i wish there was more on Jack's "sayings" and philosophy of life. I did find a lead to the last book Jack wrote at age 95 called Live Young Forever and i o...

RESONANCE Joyce Whiteley Hawkes (2012). Resonance:                                                                  Nine Practices for Harmonious                                                                          H ealth and Vitality Hawkes is a biologist by training and after a successful academic career had a near death experience that led to her life of healing which took led her to teachers in Bali and the Philippines. This is her second book (the first is Cell Level Healing)...40 years of practicing healing inform this book...it's the best of biology and spirituality, ...

THINK TIME  Nancy Kline (1999). Time to Think:                                            Listening to Ignite the Human Mind. Kline is a Quaker and CEO of the organization Time to Think, Inc . The book is born of a health crisis she lived through in her 20's...a story of courage and love... the theme of the book is to create a "thinking environment" where people's dreams become real, where they can solve their own problems, and make their own decisions through your attentive listening and incisive questions that promote more thinking for THEM. the steps in a thinking session are simple to enumerate and challenging to practice because they go against the grain of most modern industrialized attitudes, behavior, and agendas...Kline applies these steps to organizational meetings, classrooms, health care, politics, intimate relationships, and families...the ...