Best Memoirs I've Read Lately

Have a look...these are some fabulous, worthwhile, inspiring reads.

Wild by Cheryl Strayed
Let's Take the Long Way Home by Gail Caldwell
Lots of Candles, Plenty of Cake by  Anna Quindlen
The Happiness Project by Gretchin Rubin
Truth & Beauty:  A Friendship by Ann Patchett

Trigger May 25 2012

The heat makes us lazy, and when our brains and bodies slow down we recall that feeling from an earlier time.  Did you have a cottage as a child, a backyard pool?  Was yours a family that took the tent trailer and camped with every possible efficiency (perked coffee, griddle, indoor toilets) or were you a canoe and backpack student that sweat through the heat in the Algonquin.  Recall using all of your senses.

Trigger May 15 2012

Today we are going to write about the choices that we've made that no one gave us permission for; in fact, choices that we were blatantly told not to make, and things we were told if we were good we would not consider doing.

Think of a couple of things you have done, decisions you've made in your life, that were not what others might have expected, supported or approved of.

Trigger May 11 2012

There has been a great deal of loss and trauma in my immediate circle, but one step removed from me, in the last week or so.  Has this been true for you either now or at another time?
Write about what you feel when someone close to you loses a husband or parent, or their sibling has a health crisis which upsets many people's lives with trying to manage.
Do you feel like your turn is coming?  Are you able to be compassionate for your friend?  We typically relate another person's experience, be it suffering or celebration, to ourselves.
Write about an example of how you felt when someone close to you was going through a crisis.

Trigger May 5 2012

I was reading recently in The Happiness Project, by Gretchen Rubin that when she makes an effort to sing in the morning--yes, really, it has an amazing effect on those around her.  Following the adage that if Momma isn't happy, ain't nobody happy, she makes an effort to inject fun and levity into the morning wakeup.
Okay, you know what's coming?
How were you usually awoken in the morning, as a child? In comparison or contrast, what is your preferred way to wake up now?
Do you enjoy the alarm/music injecting schedule into your day or do you crave a morning where you wake up whenever your body feels completely done sleeping?
Write about waking up.