Support4Change Blog

December 22, 2006

Category: Commentary on Life Today

By Arlene Harder, MA, MFT
 

The original title for this page was “Dec. 22 — From Cairns to Kewarra Beach Resort” and the entry began: “This is going to be one of the highlights of the trip. We’ll be staying for two nights in a tree house in a rain forest. Sounds idyllic, doesn’t it? I plan to just sit and read. Time for a break.” [If you’re a new visitor to this blog, you can read an explanation of what is happening by reading the blog entry of It Pays to Check the Weather.]

Well, I have to revise my comments [as I’m cleaning up a few old entries on Feb. 20] because it turns out the resort wasn’t in a rain forest but in a tropical forest on the beach and the house was about two feet off the ground. Other than that it is nice. A bit expensive for our tastes, but it did give me a chance to read — while I was doing the laundry.

Today I’m going to recommend you  read a review of a wonderful book, Kitchen Table Wisdom, by a very special woman. She is one of my favorite authors and I began this review by saying:

Many years ago, at a seminar on guided imagery for healing, Rachel Naomi Remen began to share a relaxing, calming imagery for a group of several hundred clinicians when someone turned down the lights in the auditorium. She paused and said, “Please keep the lights on. I want you to know how to do this when you’re standing in a grocery line. It’s easy to find your calm center within when everything’s quiet and the lights are low, it’s much harder if life is going on around you.” Simple words. A wonderfully common-sense lesson. A beautifully compassionate, eloquent and common-sense woman.

In Kitchen Table Wisdom: Stories That Heal the author has translated a wealth of life lessons, from her experience as a physician, professor of medicine, therapist, long-term survivor of chronic illness, and founder of Commonweal, a support group for people facing terminal illness, into simple, but not simplistic stories, with honesty and grace.

Take a look and then buy the book with some of the money you have left over from Christmas (since you took my advice and didn’t let guilt force you to spend more than you should have).