The ruminations of an artist on art & life...art quilts, beading, knitting, drawing, painting, printmaking, bookmaking are all my passions, I love to explore creating....

Friday, September 24, 2010

FOUR WORD SELF HELP

FOUR WORD SELF HELP Simple Wisdom for Complex Lives. by Patti Digh

Author and blogger Patti Digh has created a sweet little book full of short pithy 4-word phrases of simple wisdom: "mean what you say" "stop counting, start including""get your fingernails dirty" and my fave (so far) "always assume positive intent."

I first met Patti--online--through her award winning blog 37 Days. I was soon hooked as her essays were both poetic and thoughtful, and here was someone who loved poetry as much as I did! Soon, I found myself checking her blog every morning to see if she had written something new and inspiring; next thing I knew I was commenting on her blog posts and soon we had an online conversation going.

Patti writes in her intro to this book that she "kept to her own 4 word advice" : 1. keep it very simple, 2. make them four words,  3. avoid the word don't, and 4. make each an action. Sounds simple, huh? but in reality...not so simple to write a book so simple with so much depth to it.

She addresses 12 issues in her book and has a thought provoking essay for each issue: Community, Love, Stress, Travel, Soul, Wellness, Success, Green, Activism, Children, Generosity, and Endings. In addition, each page of this book is wonderfully illustrated by readers of Patti's blog 37 Days.

I left this book out on the dining table for my housemates to read and soon would find one of them engrossed in the book---and all commented enthusiastically---they loved it! I suspect you will, also. (so, my advice to you: go out and buy it now!! at your local independent bookstore...) I plan to gift a few of these to special friends over the holidaze..."open doors for others"

1 comment:

Carole Baker said...

Thank you for this.... I've taken a look at the blog and look forward to many hours there soon. Its good to be catching up on my favorite blogs and now there is another one. Are you in Berkeley?