In life one cannot awaken often enough the sense of a beginning within oneself. There is so little external change needed for that since we actually transform the world from within our hearts. If the heart longs for nothing but to be new and unlimited, the world is instantly the same as on the day of its creation and infinite.**
Rainer Maria Rilke

It’s simple logic: if you don’t walk your true path, you don’t find your true people.^
Martha Beck

I love recommending books
(And I have some books to give away
as a thank you to those who have signed up to
Thin|Silence –
More information below).
The trouble is that I don’t read one book at a time,
And the things I’m appreciating
and taking away from the reading
are the cumulative affect of quite few authors
who are helping me keep on my path.
Indeed the path seems to be
punctuated
by the next book or books.
Yesterday,
I read Austin Kleon’s description of his own
reading methodology:

Looking back, one of the things that occurs to me is how my deep influences are not necessarily a matter of a single book, but of a cluster of books – some batch of books that were read in sequence or simultaneously that spoke to each other in a particular way that made a maximum impact.^^

In my own practice,
I identify a main read –
At the moment it’s Dorie Clark’s The Long Game –
And aim to get through twenty pages each day,
Capturing significant quotes in my journaling.
Around this, I hope to turn a page in several other books,
And am often surprised by overlapping or
juxtaposing thoughts.
I add some reading of blogs –
My “blog tribe” is growing
and at the moment I have more than
300
blogs to slowly make my way through.
A different mix of books and blogs produces different thoughts
that I need because
they help me to change my heart and
keep me on my
path.

(I’ve had to make space for my latest books
so I am giving away around
20 books.
The titles will appear in my blog posts over the next week,
Including how to request one
or a cluster.)

*Jesus asking a question of a religious lawyer: Luke 10:25-28;
**Rainer Maria Rilke’s Letters on Life;
^Martha Becks’s The Way of Integrity;
^^Austin Kleon’s blog: A cluster map of books.