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Music, Astrology, Sarah's Book Choice-Page Turner

Page Turner

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Dear Friends,
      Two years ago I was grumbling to my wise and witty friend Barrie Dolnick about something or other. She listened attentively and with great affection, and then told me to buck up and start following my own advice: become grateful that I was so feeling so ornery, restless and miserable because it meant Divine Discontent was stirring things up in my soul and change was on the way. Since I welcome change the way a concrete wall looks forward to the wrecking ball, this was not exactly what I wanted to hear. And what was I supposed to do in the meantime? Funny you should ask, she replied with awry grin. She was writing a manual called Instructions for Your Discontent. I begged her to let me start reading her unfinished manuscript and with Barrie’s hallmark generosity of spirit she did. I finished her first few chapters in one sitting, and then started over again. Those original dog-eared pages have become the book you now hold in your hands.

      If ever there was a quintessential self-help book (as in help yourself back to sanity and serenity, word by word) this one is it. Often when we’re going down for the third, fourth or fifth time with any difficult, discouraging and recurring situation in our lives (and getting nowhere) it’s time to stop holding fast to beliefs that don’t work anymore. We need an attitude adjustment as powerful and as transformative as gratitude such as reconsidering discontent as a blessing, not a curse. As the English historian Dame Ciecly Veronica Wedgwood points out, “Discontent and disorder [are] signs of energy and hope,not of despair.”

      It just doesn’t feel that way when we’re mired in our misery. But help is here. It’s been my great fortune to have Barrie Dolnick act as a loving, compassionate, and savvy guide during my own magical, mystical mystery tour, known as Life, and it gives me great pleasure to introduce you to each other. Quite frankly, I believe Instructions for Your Discontent is a gift of grace (and may all the world’s cynics be the first in line to surrender their self-imposed shackles of skepticism and smirks.) As for the rest of us, those who waver between the ebb and flow of faith and doubt on a daily basis, get comfy and play with the idea that the same thinking that keeps you a grimacing malcontent isn’t the one that’s going to help you start grinning again. But pondering and then following Barrie Dolnick’s provocative and persuasive suggestions will. At the very least, I think you’ll discover in the warmth, wit and wisdom of this profound and sassy book, a writer andchum who really does understand what it’s like to wake up every morning and notwant to get out of bed. Barrie’s enthusiasm for change is contagious and comforting; actually reading this book in bed with a cup of something warm is very soothing and therapeutic!

      While you might think you’re only perusing a book called Instructions for Your Discontent, I suspect you’ll discover, as I did, nothing less than a practical, creative, spiritual and smile inducing manual on how to spin straw into gold. And that’s certainly worth a read. Thanks for visiting and sending fondest wishes for a joyous Spring.

Sarah