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

SINFUL Mary Balogh (2004). Slightly Sinful. This is the 5th book in Balogh's "Slightly" series of romance novels set in the time of Lords and Ladies of England. Lord Alleyne Bedwyn loses his memory in battle and is discovered naked and nearly dead in the forest and brought back to health by Rachel York in a room above a brothel with the help of the ladies and Sergent Strickland, who helped transport Alleyne from the forest...a fake marriage between Alleyne and Rachel to ingratiate her with her Uncle who is holding her inheritance of jewels and later confessions of both the Uncle and Rachael and Alleyne restore Rachel's relationship to her Uncle's and her rightful place as heir to Chesbury. Eventually, Alleyne slowly regains his memory, and the couple marry and live at Chesbury.  Losing the memory of one's identity leaves one free to become anything one wants to be...what if you could really let go of all of your past...what new paths might emerge before you wi...

INWARD ARC Frances Vaughan (1985). The Inward Arc:                                                     Healing and Wholeness in                                                     Psychotherapy and Spirituality. Vaughan (PhD in Psychology) was a psychotherapist who integrated spirituality in therapy...she is the author of three other books...she weaves different spiritual perspectives (Christian, Hindu, and Buddhist in particular) and spiritual perspectives (Freudian, Jungian, Humanist, Cognitive-Behavioral, and Transpersonal) into the themes of the book. The experiential activities at the end of each chapter were my favorite. One theme was that we need awareness and healing to brin...

SURELY YOUR JOKING Richard Feymann (1985). Surely You're Joking Mr. Feyman!                                                                   Adventures of a Curious Character. Feyman (pronounced "Fine-man") is a noble prize winning physicist. The book draws on interviews with him that narrate stories chronologically from the time of his life as a boy in his own laboratory to working on the first bomb to teaching physics at several universities to travel abroad.  Things that resonated with me: Do things  for the FUN of it, just to play around...one of the best ways to learn. Don't trust an expert's opinion about research--read the original research yourself and make up your own mind, and if it's possible and important, do your own calculations to confirm the numbers. For any theory/mod...

MERRY and COMPASSIONATE Mary Balogh (2003). Slightly Scandalous. Blough writes fictional novels...this is the 3d book in her "Slightly" series and involves the Marquess of Hallmere Joshua Moore and Lady Freyja Bedwyn of Lindsey Hall. A farce betrothol (to protect from scandal) takes a long time to turn into a "love match" which only takes hold at the end of the story. Joshua's meriment and deep compassion meet Freyja's haughtiness and fierceness. Freyja leaps into what she fears to overcome it (a courageous but not a long term wise habit) while Joshua trusts that in life "all will be well," echoing Saint Julian of Norwich's famous saying. The practice is to cultivate a feeling of gratitude for the gift of life, for the merriment of being alive with dancing eyes, a smiling face, and words that uplift and inspire ALONG WITH a deeper compassion for the well-being of all creatures, especially those within our care.

PIE SARK (2002). Prosperity Pie:                                How to Relax About Money and Everything Else SARK is a pen name for Susan Ariel Rainbow Kennedy. SARK is a self-made artist and writer (i could not find information about her education)...she's authored 16 books as of 2024...she is the CEO of a successful organization called "Planet SARK." in this book, "prosperity pie" refers to our experience of living in the abundance of life's gifts/blessings/resources and sharing them with others...there is enough...we are enough. of the many ideas, some of which can be practices/experiments: go through all your STUFF, and recycle everything you don't use or love give yourself the CARE you need everyday for physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual health gather your inner children, find out what they need, and meet their needs as best you can call someone out to PLAY engage in joyful mastur...

JUMP START Doug Hall (1995). Jump Start Your Brain . Hall has a BS in chemical engineering and worked a decade for Procter and Gamble before retiring at age 32 and starting his own organization that consulted with many Fortune 500 companies. This book shares some of his secrets about creativity. Throughout the book, Hall uses quotes, especially quips from Benjamin Franklin and quotes from himself and his employees. Some of the ideas that resonated with me: to brainstorm creative ideas, instead of pulling ideas out of our brain, stimulate the brain with new ideas and link them back to the problem, decision, issue, topic, or idea at hand--the stimuli can be ANYTHING--pictures in a  magazine, newspaper headlines, tv shows, words in the dictionary, titles of books, famous people...in one section, Hall lists 1,090 items in categories for an activity he calls, "Dr. Disecto." part of creativity is learning to PLAY like a kid again, creating a comfortable environment to play is esse...

JUMP TIME Jean Houston (2004). Jump Time:                                             Shaping Your Future                                             in a World of Radical Change. Houston has doctorates in both psychology and religion, and is an international author, consultant, and speaker. In this book, she defines "jump time" as an evolutionary shift from the old to the new, a time of potential radical transformation/evolution on every system level. Her use of metaphor and vocabulary makes engaging reading, and her references to other researchers and people of indigenous wisdom fills the pages. Another book is needed that takes her ideas and turns them into specific, concrete practices. To her credit, she does include ...