I was visiting my friend Barnes & Noble last week in search for a better book on digital photography. Thanks to my parents generous gift card, it was a guilt free excursion. Having found just the right one I meandered my way to the store front. Passing the spiritual, lifestyle highlights table, one leaped right up to grab my attention ~ 'life is a verb" by Patti Digh. Visually it's beautifully presented in a very creative format illustrated with beautiful art cards. The front proclaims "37 days to wake up. Be mindful. And live intentionally." With all the growth and change I am working on for this new year, it's a great tool.
The author pens the award winning blog 37 days. The story behind the timeline is a sad one. She lost her stepfather many years ago to cancer - 37 days from diagnosis to the end of his life. Many who have yet to be close to someone traveling through the cancer journey expect that if you were given such a prognosis you'd quit your job and (insert lifelong dream here) for the rest of your days. The truth is when you hear those words the structure we build our lives around falls away and we are left with what is most precious - the people we love that we want to spend as much time with as possible and the stories we want to leave behind. The premise of the book is enjoy every day as a gift and to really think if I had 37 days left to live how would I be spending that time and who would I want to be?
The book is a good handbook to life. It provides lots of exercises and challenges to live your life with more intensity, inclusion, integrity, intimacy, intuition and intention (her 6 principles). She recommends adopting 1 or 2 at a time and put them into practice for 37 days and see how your life changes. And continue on from there.
How would your life look and be if you lived each day intentionally?
The first challenge I am taking on is to redirect the critic in my head and focus her comments towards the positive. This will be a hard one as the inner critic normally has me in her cross hairs. But tackling this monkey will make all the rest of my intentions for change so much easier to accomplish.
I'll keep you posted on my progress and other challenges or inspirations as I work through the book. Let me know if it crosses your path as well.
Editor note: off topic, I am happy to report my family and the friends I have touched base within the last 2 days are not having any water damage or flooding due to all the rains we have received this week in WA state. So far, no injuries have been caused by the flooding. Thoughts to those neighborhoods and communities that are bearing the brunt of the storms.