Guest Author: Carolyn CJ Jones

Thank you, Jenai, for the wonderful opportunity to blog on your site. I am grateful to be sharing with your audience. In deciding on what to blog, I would like to talk about honesty, openness, and willingness to share with others who we are. These tools go hand-in-hand in helping us reach peace.

I think willingness is the first step, as it opens our hearts and, thus, allows us to give and then to receive. That willingness starts by just being okay with stretching our heart, allowing it to open a bit, just a bit to let others see who we are, just a bit to show we are committed to the journey.

What I mean by being committed to the journey is, being able and willing to experience, with an open mind and an open, non-judgmental heart, events that occur in the course of living our life on any particular day. Willingness attracts openness, others who are willing, who are on their own journey. We will recognize these people, and glean knowledge from the lessons they teach. And that is the receiving part of it.

The giving part of it is that which we share with others, the interest we take in them. It is also about sharing of ourselves. Honesty is a central tool to employ, as we want to portray to others the true person we are. This can be frightening for some of us, especially if we came from an abusive background of any type. We have had to hide who we are for our very survival. Now, however, that behavior is getting in our way.

Little-by-little, we share about our deepest thoughts, give hints to others about who we are and what we believe. Having been cautious about this step, I can say that people have received me with open arms. It has been safe to share who and what I am.

These three tools - honesty, openness, and willingness - are indispensable in the pursuit of peace, and once we practice them, we will experience gratitude for the experiences that flow as a result.

Carolyn CJ Jones is the award-winning author, photographer, and publisher  of the book Opening the Gates of the Heart: A Journey of Healing. If you are celebrating a transitional journey you have navigated, if you would like to embark upon such a journey, or if you are in the middle of one and struggling, this book will speak volumes. You will want to experience in your own journey what the author has experienced in hers. This book uses a collection of compelling and joyous verses, which, when coupled with photographs of wrought-iron gates, shows one soul's way to inner peace. More information about her and her book can be found at www.gatelady.com. Carolyn resides in the San Francisco Bay Area, where she lives with her feral cat, Izzy.

- Best Fine Art Photography Book, 2011 Bay Area Independent Publisher's Association
- Honorable Mention, Spirituality, 2010 New York Book Festival
- Honorable Mention, Photography/art, 2010 San Francisco Book Festival
- First Prize, Poetry, 2010 Do-It-Yourself Book Festival

Gate Lady Publishing
off:  415-883-8325
fax: 415-532-2381
www.gatelady.com 
carolyn@gatelady.com

Book Review: How To Improve Your Life by Raymond Scudder

Title: How To Improve Your Life
Authors: Raymond H. Scudder
Paperback: 210 pages
Publisher: Mill City Press, Inc. (March 28, 2011) 

 

Ratings:

★ ★ ★ ★  

My thoughts:

Need guide on how to improve yourself, health, relationships,  etc? How about changing jobs and questions about your finances? The book has all these topics discussed and the approach used by author is simple, therefore pretty easy to understand.


The book is divided into twelve chapters and the author ends every chapter with a summary. The best part, for me, was the guide on how to improve your career. The author provides cover letter, resume' sample and even sample questions used for job interview! I also enjoyed reading the guide on how to increase your income, eliminating debt and spending your money wisely. 


This is a great book to help you succeed in any area of endeavor. 



About the book:

A must-read for anyone who wants to improve their life but doesn't know where or how to begin. The author provides a life-changing Improvement Process you can easily follow to take control of your life and achieve whatever you want.

The simplicity and beauty of this process means that in a very short time, you will:
• start thinking and behaving in a positive, can-do way
• target the areas of your life most in need of improvement
• begin using your vast personal potential
• notice and explore opportunities you never considered before
• stay motivated and focused on what you want in life until it becomes reality
• monitor your progress and celebrate your improvement accomplishments


HOW TO IMPROVE YOUR LIFE also offers a wealth of improvement tips and expert advice on how to:

• live a healthy life
• build and strengthen your relationships
• boost your career
• achieve personal financial success
• make internal changes that maximize your ability to accomplish whatever you want to do


About the author:

 

Improvement of himself and others has been a driving force in the life and career of RAYMOND H. SCUDDER (Ray). Born and raised in Los Angeles, he has enjoyed a distinguished forty-five-year career as a human resources and quality improvement professional. A graduate of the University of Southern California with a BS Degree in Public Administration, he is also a Six Sigma certified process improvement specialist. Ray served as director of human resources for one of the largest medical centers in the state of Oregon and then as vice president of human resources and quality management for one of the largest medical centers in the state of Washington. In 1994 he founded Human Resources Consulting & Training which provided consulting and employee training programs to over 30 hospitals in the Pacific Northwest and served as its president until retiring in 2006. He and his wife, Jan, live in Lake Stevens, Washington.

Note: I received a review copy of this book free from the author, Raymond Scudder. The review posted above is based on my personal thoughts while reading the book.

Guest Author: Daniel Wright

Write a Book?

Becoming an author was the last thought on my mind as I graduated college. I had just started a small plastics business, recently been married, and witnessed the birth of my first niece. At the age of 23, the roadmap for my life seemed to be pointed towards the typical American dream of finding a reliable job, settling down in a nice suburban home, and raising a family. I had no idea that my life was going to change in a very drastic way.

Remembering the Stories

I could not ignore the requests. My Dad was a master story teller. Growing up, Papa Wright would often accompany me to father/son camp. Right around the time that the lights were suppose to go out, all the campers in our cabin would gather around his bunk and wait for the next installment of his adventure stories; many of which were loosely based on his own experiences backpacking in the Alaskan wilderness. It was quite an anomaly to have 15 young boy campers stay silent for hours on end, breathlessly waiting for my father to continue his story from the night before.

The fascination with my father’s storytelling ability continued as he became a teacher. I cannot even begin to count the number of former students and parents that would come up to me and ask if “Mr. Wright” was still telling his “wild adventure” stories. My friends and I would often sit around and recount our favorite stories he had told us. One day, while enjoying lunch with a friend, the conversation again turned to my Dad’s stories. “You know, I think they would make a great plot for a book,” my friend remarked. A light bulb went off in my head. My father did not have the patience or writing ability to create a book, but I did.

I called my Dad that night. Over dinner at a local restaurant, I pitched the idea to my father. We talked wildly into the night, carefully laying the foundation for what would become The Wild Adventures of Eli Johnson and Curly Bill, the first book in our series. We were convinced that these stories had enough action and adventure to lure even the most resistant kid away from video games, and into a lifelong love of reading. The next day I went right to work on writing the book.

Tragedy Strikes

A few months into brainstorming ideas for the book, I received a knock on my door at three o’clock in the morning. There stood my father standing in the doorway, sobbing uncontrollably. Through painful words he told me that my sister had been killed in a car accident. It’s hard to describe the pure unadulterated pain that shot through my body as my mind tried to wrap around the concept of what was being told to me.

As the weeks dragged on, the book became an afterthought. I felt like a walking zombie. The creativity that had existed between my father and I was gone. The will to act like a functioning member of society had ceased, replaced by a longing for things to be as they once were.

A New Day Arises

Like the sun rising after a rainy night, hope began to filter through the cracks of our misery. Six months after the tragedy of my sister’s death, I began to sit down and write again. It must have been God’s great mercy, for the words began to flow. I finished the entire manuscript in two months. I rushed over to my parent’s house and showed my Dad the final version of the story. As he read, a smile began to appear on his face; the first smile I had seen from him in a long time!

Flash Forward

As I reflect back on the last two years, I can clearly see that The Wild Adventures of Eli Johnson and Curly Bill was the catalyst that brought our family back from the brink of despair. It gave my family something to be proud of again.  Within the first four months of the books release, I visited dozens of elementary schools in support of the book. I passionately spoke to thousands of students on the joys of reading, and the need to get up off the couch and explore the wonderful outdoors. The storytelling baton has been passed from my father to me, as I got the opportunity to watch his stories captivate a larger audience than ever before.

 The proudest moment of my life came recently, as I preformed a speaking engagement for students and parents at the Elementary School where my father teaches. The school graciously allowed my dad to deliver the introduction before I spoke. There were few dry eyes in the building as my Dad announced how proud he was to call me his son. Many of those in the audience had stood with us during our time of need. As father and son walked off the stage, arms wrapped around each other’s shoulders, a feeling of peace came over both of us. Though neither one of us could have created the book by ourselves, together we were able to accomplish our goal.

The Wild Adventures of Eli Johnson and Curly Bill, is an action/adventure story written for Junior level readers between the ages of 7-12. Set in the 1800’s, the book follows Eli and Curly Bill as they try to survive wild animals, bandits, and hostile Native American’s in their quest to find gold. These days Dan remains busy touring local schools promoting the joy of reading and inspiring children to develop a love for Michigan’s great outdoors. You can obtain a copy of the book by visiting Amazon.com or Barnes&Noble.com. To learn more about Dan, or see pictures of his presentations, visit www.danwrightbooks.com.