Resolution of the day: LEARN

Are you an old dog?  You can still learn a few tricks.  Set out this year to gain a new skill or go deep into something you find fascinating.  Take a class on wine pairing, conversational Italian, mushroom identification.  My very inspiring friend Chareane seems to add to her repertoire of wisdom and talent each year:  so far since hitting a landmark birthday she's taken up accordion and samba, among other arts.
    To bind two birds with one story (killing birds seems a little harsh), practice last week's resolve of connection by looking for a mentor.  Know someone who can make a great pie crust or loaf of bread?  Ask them to share the wisdom.  Know how to tune up a bike or tailor?  Make a trade.
  Pick something new this year to investigate.  There are great community classes through parks and rec and LBCC to teach you everything from Tai Chi to making a webpage.  Get going!  Lifelong learning is good for the brain and good for the health.  It can keep your memory sharp, increase your connections to others or create them, provide cheap entertainment, and depending on what you learn, even save you money as you learn to do for yourself.

Today's quote:  "The wisest mind has something yet to learn."  --George Santayana
Today's good read:   Mushrooming Without Fear:  The Beginner's Guide to Collecting Safe and Delicious Mushrooms, by Alexander Schwab
Today's website: Parks and Rec Classes-- from Art to Zumba
How to do almost anything videos:  howcast.com
Song of the day:   OK, I'm stumped.  Anyone have a suggestion for today's song?

Resolution of the day: TASTE (updated!)

OK, maybe not a banana slug.  My photos on my work computer are limited-- we work with what we got.

Today's resolution:  Explore the sense of taste.  Losing weight is in the top three of all resolutions Americans tend to make.  But most of us gulp our food so fast we don't even taste what we're eating.  Mindful eating offers a chance to slow down and experience our food in an entirely different way.  Put your fork down between bites.  Notice textures and that big compadre of taste, odor.  See if you can identify the six known types of taste sensation:  salty, sweet, sour, spicy, bitter and that tricky new one, umami (savory).  Notice how the sensations change as you chew, and the food moves from the front to the back of the mouth.  Have a taste-off:  get three or more samples of one type of food-- say, three species of apples-- and really pay attention to the differences. Plan a meal of very small portions each dedicated to a different taste element.
Update:  Went to Grassroots Books over my lunch hour to get a new calendar.  While I was there I spoke to the owner, the thoughtful Jack Wolcott, and told him about today's blog.  He enthused on the importance of slow eating:  "It gives your body a chance to ready for the food, know when you're full, and appreciate what you eat".  As a result, he notes he makes much better choices about what he eats-- because bad food tastes, well, bad.

I told him about eating a piece of local cheese and how much I enjoyed it as I thought about the cow, the dairy farmer, the grasses, the sun-- all that went into what was now going into me.  He thought I might appreciate local physician Mary Ann Wallace's new book  "Mindful Eating, Mindful Life:  How to Change the Habits that Sabotage Your Health."  An outcome of the classes she has taught through Heartsprings Wellness, the book includes a CD with journaling and meditation exercises.  I am looking forward to reading it.   We have such wonderful resources in our community-- check them out.

Song of the day:  Guy Clark's Home Grown Tomatoes
Quote of the day:  "For each mouth, a different soup." --Portuguese proverb
Book of the day:  A Natural History of the Senses, by Diane Ackerman
Updated Book Bonus:  "Mindful Eating, Mindful Life", by Mary Ann Wallace, MD
Website of the day:  The Ark of Taste, Slow Food USA's project to reclaim 200 heritage foods on the verge of cultural extinction
Website Bonus:   Mary Ann Wallace on mindful eating

Resolution of the day: REST

Sunday:  day of rest.  Today I took a nap.
I love the idea of Sabbath.  Americans now are working (those of us lucky to have jobs, anyway) more hours than the last four generations.  Take
time to pause in your life, rest, and just be a human being, instead of a human doing.

Today's quote:  “Rest is not idleness, and to lie sometimes on the grass under the trees on a summer's day, listening to the murmur of water, or watching the clouds float across the sky, is by no means a waste of time”.  --John Lubbock


Today's book:  SABBATH:  Restoring the Sacred Rhythm of Rest and Delight, by Wayne Muller

Today's song:  "Feelin' Groovy", by Simon and Garfunkel

Resolution of the Day: DANCE!

Not much time to get this one in today, because I'm off to practice what I'm preaching.  But I hated to break my one-a-day-resolution resolution.
Local resource of the day: Contra dancing in Corvallis
Local resource redux:  Cedar and Fir Studio
Quote of the day:  "If I can't dance, I don't want to be in your revolution."  --Emma Goldman (alleged)

Resolution of the Day: CONNECT

We have the illusion we are separate from another, but we spring from one source.  Nonetheless, in this age of hyper-virtual-connectedness, people report being lonelier than in previous generations.   A 2006 Duke study found that in two decades, Americans reported one third less confidantes, and the number who had no one at all they felt they could confide in more than doubled. There are serious implications to our epidemic of loneliness. The longitudinal Harvard Nurses' Study found the effects of not having close friends to confide in were as detrimental to physical health as smoking or excessive weight.

For me, viewing this video was an intense reminder that we are all in this together-- and that we spring from the same source.  We are all capable of suffering, and also of joy and love.  But we concentrate on the differences, and we feel alone.  My resolution for today is to look for that place of connection with the people I see-- to focus on where we are together in the world..

Quote for the day: “Let there be such oneness between us, that when one cries, the other tastes salt.”  (author unknown)

Website of the day:  bettertogether.org

Song of the day:  You've Got a Friend-- James Taylor

Resolution of the day: BREATHE

To one who has been long in city pent,
'Tis very sweet to look into the fair
And open face of heaven, - to breathe a prayer
Full in the smile of the blue firmament.
~John Keats, Sonnet XIV

Tension can result in a chronic half-breath habit, which means you're not fully emptying your lungs of waste (carbon dioxide) or getting your fill of oxygen.  The next time you're stuck at a red light, waiting in line or on hold, use the moment to notice your breathing.   Take two or three breaths that are a bit slower and deeper than usual.  Allow for a natural pause between the exhale and inhale.  Let your belly rise with each breath.   It's a quick and simple way to still your mind and relax.


I took a deep breath and listened to the old bray of my heart:  I am, I am, I am.  ~Sylvia Plath

Song of the day:  Breathe, by Willy Porter
Book of the day:  Perfect Breathing:  Transform your Life One Breath at a Time by AL Lee and Don Campbell
Video of the day:  Bellying Breathing on Anxietycoach.com
Three breathing exercises (Dr. Weil)

Resolution of the Day: READ

Want to get lost in an alternate reality?  Find new ways to live in this one?  Understand how corn intersected with politics to shape food prices in the 70s?  See Cajun culture through the eyes of a literate detective? Learn how to make artisan bread? 

Do all that without spending any money?

Head to your local library.

A mega study by the National Endowment for the Arts found that reading, especially reading for pleasure, was on a steady decline in the first several years of the millennium.  Less than half of 18-24 year olds had read a single book for pleasure the year of the study.  While they may be mixing apples and oranges, the NEA also noted a correlation between lack of reading and many negative outcomes such as lower employment levels, poorer writing skills, and less involvement in civic life, especially activities such as voting and volunteering.

I'm a print surfer. I typically have a dozen books going at once, and they range from escapist novels to lengthy single-subject dives.  It keeps my mind growing and provides relaxation.  I love going to our local library and browsing the New Reads section.  I end up reading books I never would have considered, and all for free. (I do garner the regular overdue fine-- and make an additional yearly donation-- but they don't require that).

To see  the reads that rocked the worlds of a few friends and acquaintances, check out the lists in the August Door Number Two blogs.  Ask people you know about their Top Ten.  Then go get lost in a book.

Quote of the day:  She is too fond of books, and it has turned her brain.  Louisa May Alcott, 1873

Web-read of the day:  10-benefits-of-reading
Song of the day:  Paperback Writer --the Beatles

Resolution of the day: FORGIVE

 There's a church near my house that posts little aphorisms on its bulletin board.  One of my favorites:  "Refusing to forgive is like drinking poison, and waiting for the other person to die."
Make a resolution to let go of an old hurt.  You don't have to forget to forgive, and you don't have to allow another to continuing hurting you in the same way.  It's fine to set limits, but it's also good to acknowledge that at some point, carrying the burden of the hurt is doing more damage than good.  It's sometimes impossible and often unnecessary to offer forgiveness directly to the one that hurt you.  You still benefit by acknowledging the pain and the lesson and then allowing the resentment to recede.

(Click on embedded links for more information)

Book of the day:  Why Forgive? by Joseph Christopher Arnold
Song of the day:  Not Angry Anymore  by Ani DiFranco
Website of the day:   Campaign for Love and Forgiveness
Movie of the day:  Dead Man Walking (1995)
Letting Go ritual courtesy of loveandforgive.org

Resolution of the Day: THANK

01/04/10

Send a note to someone who made a difference in your life.  If you can, make it real mail-- it's nice to get something besides bills and sales ads in the box.  It doesn't have to be eloquent or grand.  I've sent thank yous to cashiers for being patient, to old teachers for inciting my curiosity, and to restaurants for having good biscuits.  

Book of the day:  Attitudes of Gratitude: How to Give and Receive Joy Everyday of Your Life, by MJ Ryan

Song of the day: Thank you for Hearing Me-- Sinead O'Conner

Resolution of the day: Smile

In keeping with my nature of perfection of imperfection, I'm already two days behind my scenario of posting a daily resolution.  I figure if I get ten in this month, I'll be doing great..
  
Resolution for 1/03/09:  Smile more.
Our brain has a "facial feedback feature":  when we make purposefully imitate faces associated with certain emotions, such as anger, sadness or happiness, our brains start cranking in ways similar to when we feel those emotions in real life.  By smiling-- a real smile, eyes included, not a grimace-- we activate the beginnings of pleasurable feelings.  Even imagining ourselves smiling in this way causes similar brain activity. 

Book of the day: A Brief History of the Smile, by Aussie art historian Angus Trumble

Song of the day:  Smile  Nat King Cole

30 Resolutions in 30 days-- Day one: RESOLVE!

A new year, a new decade-- talk about your clean slates.  Seems like a big crowd will be happy to put this one to rest.  And like millions of Americans, I will be reflecting on the past and making some decisions and commitments to do some things differently in the future.  Research says over half of us make such resolutions, and we mostly make the same ones each year: do some things less or not at all, and others more or for the first time.  We want to lose weight, save money or at least stop spending so much, clean up our dirty habits, be generally Better.  There is evidence the resolving is worth something.  In one popular study, 46% of the "resolvers" were still at it at 6 months, compared to 4% of those who didn't make resolutions but had vague ideas about self-improvement.  To up the possibility of making it work, here are some tips.
    Keep it measurable:  Set goals that are specific and concrete, and have a time line for checking progress.  You can have a goal of "Increase health", but break it down into short term objectives that lead to it. You'll have a sense of progress and success this way. 
    Write it down, and check back in:  It's better to get it in writing than offer yourself vague intentions.  Set short term objectives to your longer term goal, and devise a method to keep you reminded.  some computers and cell phones let you calander an alarm with a note to periodically cue you.  Journal about progress made and blocks you encounter-- and possible solutions.
    Tell a friend:  Letting someone know your plan increases your accountibility and support.  You are writing yourself a new story-- get a good audience for it, and keep them posted.  Set up a coach trade and do the same for them.
     Get some tools:  There are lots of community, written and web resources available to help you meet your goals.  Parks and Rec, Good Sam and the community college offer classes on everything from organization skills to mindful eating.  Take a class or read a book for support and inspiration.  Even uncle Sam wants to help out:  visit New_Years_Resolutions for more.

Here's to fresh starts-- and may the New Year bring you much love and learning.
Jana

Positivity vs. Mush-mindedness

Recently, I got a comment from a reader that seemed to imply my blog was a bit too chipper.
Those of you who know me know I can be a bit of a pollyanna-- and I can also be complainy, cranky, and overwhelmed by the negative.  I think I am pretty average there.  I try, though, to make decisions on where I am giving my energy.  As I said in the last post, I have as many troubles as blessings.  But the research is clear on the restorative effects of positive psychology:  being grateful, tending to community, keeping an open mind, seeing a bigger picture.  Being hijacked by suffering does not help the sufferer, whether it's me or another.  It's not that I don't acknowledge it.  It's not that I don't sometimes indulge it.  It simply works better when I don't live there all the time.  

There's a difference between positivity and a sort of glib refusal to acknowledge reality. It's a bad idea to dismiss feelings, whether positive or negative.  I think we have to learn about and figure out how to integrate our shadow material so it's not running us.   I'm not a fan (though it may work well for some) of books like The Secret which seem to imply we can wish our way into everything we want.  It's close to delusional to assume somehow we can get a free ride from pain in our lives.  But we do have some control over what we feed ourselves, both externally and internally.  I want respite from the spate of negativity and cynicism that serves for information/entertainment in our culture, and that's what I do here.

This was, aptly,  the poem of the day on Joe Riley's wonderful list-serve.  To see the archives, visit panhala.net.  To join the group and have a poem a day delivered to your email address, send a blank email to this address.

Speech to the Young.
Speech to the Progress-Toward.

Say to them,
say to the down-keepers,
the sun-slappers,
the self-soilers,
the harmony-hushers,

"Even if you are not ready for day
it cannot always be night."
You will be right.
For that is the hard home-run.

Live not for battles won.
Live not for The-End-of-the- Song.
Live in the along.

~ Gwendolyn Brooks ~

Thanks

 The pies are baked, the cranberries saucing, the squash stuffed and the counters overflowing but clean.  The oven is ready for the next round.  In between, I danced in the kitchen.  The rain does its November thing, and in the moat of our driveway, bird are taking wildish baths together. 

For a change, there is time to rest before the meal.   

I am grateful for this day, for my family here and away, for my place in Oregon with its wet beauty, for work I love, for my loyal dog who follows me room to room.  I counted my blessings until I ran out of breath.  I could do the same with my troubles, but they can wait, and I'll let them.

Love,

Jana

 

 

Grace

 

Thanks & blessings be
to the Sun & the Earth
for this bread & this wine,
this fruit, this meat, this salt,
this food;
thanks be & blessing to them
who prepare it, who serve it;
thanks & blessings to them
who share it
(& also the absent & the dead).
Thanks & Blessing to them who bring it
(may they not want),
to them who plant & tend it,
harvest & gather it
(may they not want);
thanks & blessing to them who work
& blessing to them who cannot;
may they not want - for their hunger
sours the wine & robs
the taste from the salt.
Thanks be for the sustenance & strength
for our dance & work of justice, of peace.

 

~ Rafael Jesus Gonzalez ~

Reeling in the Years

Birthdays serve as my New Year-- a chance to reflect on the past and rechart my course.  I spent the days leading up to it in the loving embrace of my beautiful sisters and eldest daughter.  We walked in the woods, talked til all hours, laughed til our cheeks hurt, did art, ate slow food.  I fully immersed myself in their shower of nurturing and left reinvigorated and deeply grateful to have been born related to such an amazing bunch of women.  On my actual birthday, I enjoyed a quiet morning of writing and reflection, an afternoon in the forest mycogeeking, and a great dinner with my family.

I am looking at my time and seeing that it is finite.  How do I want to spend my days?  I am looking at my habits and seeing which ones I want as part of the next decade, at my relationships and how I can deepen them, and at my values and how I can live them more fully.  I am counting my many blessings and thinking of how I can honor them. I invite you to do the same. 

Even if you aren't having a hallmark birthday in this season, think about prepping for your own new year.  The dark short days offer us encouragement to slow down, rest and turn inside for a time.  Take time for a personal inventory.  Spend a quiet evening or a rainy day in contemplation of where you have arrived, and redirect to where you want to end up. 
 
Love,
Jana

ps-- the picture is of a dahlia, still blooming even in all this cold dark wetness.  I like the sleeping bee nestled in there--

Living with Dying

"I don't have time for epics"-- Anselin Reed, 1986-2006

In early November,  it is traditional to honor those whose who have died with celebration and rememberance.  In my faith community, we celebrate All Soul's Day with an alter decorated with pictures and token reminders of lost loved ones, and music and thoughtful readings to help us reflect on their gifts to our lives.

It's rare, in America, to be allowed public time for grieving and memorial of those who have died.  Even our national holiday has been minimized to a day off and a weekend of sales.  Americans have a peculiar need for closure, and a strange idea that grief work has a time limit.  I have found that grief comes in waves.

Elizabeth Kubler-Ross's work on the stages of loss was never meant to indicate an ABC orderly procession that ends neatly.   

It's two weeks today since my father died, quickly, of a heart attack.  It's not that surprising I frequently forget that he's dead and think of something I'll tell him when I visit.   Denial of this sort doesn't mean we aren't in touch with reality.  Denial is a gift, allowing time for us to adjust to big changes. Other moments I wish I had more of it, when I am gripped with the sadness of having no living parent, and the end of access to some of my history.  You live long enough, you are going to say a lot of goodbyes.

Krista Tippet said recently:  "Mortality is not at all special, but it is something we manage to avoid an awareness of, especially in Western culture."  We like to think there is all the time in the world to mend those fences, hear those stories, figure out what we need or believe.   But as the old saw goes:  "One hundred years from now, all new people."  

We can't and shouldn't live in fear about the very basic fact of life that is its certain outcome.  What we can do is spend a little time thinking of the little time we are here, and what we want to do with it.  We squander so much.  And I am not talking about leisure activities, which are a necessary replenishment (there was an alarming article in CNN tonight about how Americans forfeited 34.3 BILLION dollars worth of vacation time this year).  No, I'm talking about the amount of time we spend worrying about ridiculous things, such as whether our thighs are too fat, or what to wear in the morning, or whether we are Right and someone else is The Bad Guy.  I don't think it's a bad idea to think about our own inevitable death, and how we want to live in the interim.  I'm doing that this week.  I've not come to any profound conclusions, except I want to spend less time avoiding stuff  (I am a master procrastinator) and more time living the life I say I want.  I haven't got very far into practice yet.  I hope to spend some time figuring this out.  And I want to remember that I can't count on how much time I have.  I want to use it well.

Courting the Muse

A couple weeks ago, I had the pleasure of hearing local writer Marjorie Sandor reading from her latest book.  At the conclusion, she asked if anyone had questions.  The first question went straight to the heart.  Louise, a woman who brooks no bull and wastes no words said, "How do you write so well?" Marjorie was a bit flummoxed, but only for a second.  She said, in summary-- Well, I complain, I struggle, and then somehow I eventually get out of my own way--of the story and my ego--and it gets down and I am surprised.

That's a great distillation of the process, I think.  We all have an artistic language.  Some of us suppress it; some express it.  We have a lot that gets in the way:  our lack of faith in our own truth, our drift towards judgment and self-deprecation, our measuring against others whose gifts differ from our own.

I was one of those kids with the art teacher who said, "Cows aren't that color" and "Follow the directions".  I also have a just slightly older sister who is a very gifted artist.  As a result, I assumed I wasn't capable of art for a number of years.  Two weeks after  I moved to Oregon, through wondrous serendipity, I was invited to participate in a weekend of wild artmaking with a group of mostly "real" artists.  I was intimidated, but infected by their loving enthusiasm, I tried everything-- felting, basketry, painting, sculpture.  I found that I could love the process even when the outcome was--well, relegated to the attic, or used for wrapping paper.  Occasionally, I even made something I loved. In the meantime, I learned to appreciate my own muse, oddball that she was.  I became less afraid to try things I wouldn't necessary shine at doing.  Heck, it's no less a time waste than net-surfing or TV, and for me, much more relaxing.  I started a wonderful web poetry games group, engaging parts of my brain I didn't even know existed.  And something in me that wanted, healed.

Joseph Chilton Pearce said, "To live a creative life, we must lose our fear of being wrong".  Judgment is a real deal-killer for the muse. We can create for expression, for fulfillment, for purging, or for pure joy.  We don't have to show it, or sell it, or even judge it-- it can be enough just to do it.

If you are a shy, reluctant or unexplored artist, join me this weekend for a four hour workshop on freeing your muse.  It's a bit late notice.  My muse has been on holiday and I haven't been on the blog.  But if you're reading this by Thursday eve, throw me a line.  If you'd like to hear about future events, get on the email list by contacting me at janasvo-at-comcast.net (substituting @ for -at-) or check out the website at:
janasvoboda.com

Tilting At Windmills

Fall has arrived, and with it the coming of the dark.  For many, it's the beginning of this season rather than Jan.1st that marks the psychological start to a new Year.   It's a good time to take inventory.

A few nights ago, I had a terrible dream.  There had been a murder in an area I was vacationing, and when I came back from hiking to the home where I was staying, the door was ajar. The house was ok, but as I went to secure the back door, the murderer came in, and made clear his intent to harm me.  At some point I remembered what I did for a living, and started talking him down, buying time.  I'll spare you the long winded details, but what was interesting to me in the dream was that as we talked, and I listened to him with genuine curiosity and compassion, he grew smaller and smaller, and I realized I didn't need to fear him at all.

Jung says dreams come to us in service of of Psyche, as letters from the unconscious.  My webmaster pal Hal might say some dreams come in reaction to the pastrami we had for dinner.  This particular dream may have been symptomatic of too much CNN.  But since I'd seen Don Quixote in Ashland the previous weekend-- well, I saw a different possibility.  It seemed a representation of how our fears can become gigantic, hold us hostage.  How they can cause us much more trouble than they are actually capable of inflicting, with our help.  And about how when we face them, with curiosity and compassion, they shrink and lose their power.  I had a very similar dream five years ago.  As before, I'll take it as an invitation to look more closely at what fears might be holding me back in growth.

Resources:  For an interesting article on Jung, check out this week's New York Times Sunday magazine.  Find it here: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/20/magazine/20jung-t.html?emc=eta1

Update:  This morning's GT had a sweet article about the local Waldorf school's Michaelmas celebration, echoing the theme of this entry.   Second-grader slays his dragon!

Being the One Less Asshole You Want to See in the World

Warning to the sensitive: Salty Language Alert (a little late for that, though, isn't it?)

A few weeks ago, I was talking with a client about the many opportunities others offer for us to be a jerk. There's the shopping cart commando, blocking you at the grocery aisle. The clerk too busy talking on her cell phone to check you out. The person who curses you in traffic even though they caused the problem, or the friend that says something terribly hurtful. The client noted that at times like that, it seems reasonable to be rude. After all, you have a right to get mad when someone is being an asshole to you.

I agreed. I also agreed we had a right to a tension headache, high blood pressure, and a clenched jaw— but who wants them? What if, even when or even especially when others are assholes, we decide not to be? That would mean one less asshole in the room—and that's always a good thing.

And thus a new world movement was born: One Less Asshole, or OLA, baby, for short.

This isn’t just Pollyanna sentimentality. We’ve reached the world’s carrying capacity for jerkiness. It’s just not that big of a planet. And kindness is good for you. It can turn a situation around in amazing ways.  Even if it doesn’t, there’s still one less asshole in the room.

So do your part, for an hour or a lifetime. Become an OLA supporter. When someone is rude to you, don’t react. As Plato said, “Be kind. Each of us is fighting a hard battle”. It could be your reasonable response is enough to tip their balance in a positive direction. But at minimum, you don’t have to get tipped.

For more information and related links, join the movement at the OLA, BABY facebook group.

Back to the Stacks

More good reads from more good souls:
Maria Camillo's list (photographer, Secret Agent, gourmand)
to kill a mockingbird
the road
sirens of titan
cats cradle
jitterbug perfume
the godfather
love in the time of cholera
the exorcist
stranger in a strange land
cannery row
rebecca
lovely bones
great expectations
les miserables
another roadside attraction

Pete Heitzman's list (Bassist extraordinaire, gearhead, trivial pursuitist)
Their Eyes Were Watching God / Zora Neale Hurston
Salt: A World History / Mark Kurlansky
The Grapes Of Wrath / John Steinbeck
The Once And Future King / T.H. White
Letters From The Earth / Mark Twain
Great Expectations / Charles Dickens
Beloved / Toni Morrison
The Call of The Wild / Jack London
All You Need Is Ears / George Martin
Be Here Now / Ram Das
The New American Trout Fishing / John Merwin
The Education Of Oversoul Seven - Jane Roberts
Stones From The River / Ursula Hehi
Pan / Knut Hamsun
Siddhartha / Herman Hesse

Ann Marchant's List (storyteller, nutritional guru)
The Adventures of Danny Meadow Mouse/Thornton W Burgess
The Sneeches/Dr Seuss
The Hidden Staircase/Carolyn Keene
Tarzan of the Apes/Edgar Rice Burroughs
Tales of the South Pacific/James Michener
Exodos/Leon Uris
All Creatures Great and Small/James Herriot
Let's Eat Right to Stay Fit/Adelle Davis
Autobiography of Mark Twain / Samuel Clemmons
Outlander/ Diana Gabaldon
Small Wonder / Barbara Kingsolver
Guns, Germs & Steel / Jared Diamond
Power of Now / Eckhart Tolle
Loving What Is / Katie Byron
Stumbling on Happiness / Daniel Gilbert

Amy Rogers (indiana joneser of equador, monkey chaser, forest saver, surfer, soul sister)
Where the Sidewalk Ends/ Shel Silverstein
The Prophet/ Kahlil Gibran
House of Spirits/ Isabelle Allende (almost all of her's actually)
Fierce Invalids Home from Hot Climates/ Tom Robbins (absolutely all of his)
Lord of the Flies/ William Golding
Real Magic/ Wayne Dyer
Tropical Nature/ Adrian Forsyth
Into the Wild/ Jon Krakauer
The Beach/ Alex Garland
The Secret Life of Plants/ Tompkins and Bird
Breaking Open the Head/ Daniel Pinchbeck
Savages/ Joe Kane
Are you there, God? It's me, Margaret/ Judy Blume
The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe/ CS Lewis
Out on a Limb/ Shirley MacLaine

Claire Montgomery (beautiful mama, more adjectives to be learned)
A Fable - Faulkner
Them - Joyce Carol Oates
Lolita - Nabokov
The Castle - Kafka
The Tall Book -- a kid's story book
The Good Earth - Buck
LaBas - JK Huysmans
Frankenstein - Shelley
A Distant Mirror: the calamitous 14th century - Tuchman
The Idiot - Dosteovsky
God - Jack Miles
Salem's Lot - Stephen King
It Can't Happen Here - Sinclair Lewis
The Diary of Anne Frank
The Crossing - Cormac McCarthy
The Giving Tree - Shel Silverstein

Marah Cook (world traveler, style queen, boggle maniac)
Siddhartha/ Herman Hesse
100 years of solitude/ Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Where the red fern grows
Where the sidewalk ends/ Shel Silverstein
The Butter Battle Book/ Dr. Seuss
By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept/ Paulo Coelho
The Alchemist/ Paulo Coelho
Ishmael/ Daniel Quinn
Heart of Darkness/ Joseph Conrad
The Moral Life/ Louis Pojman
Dinotopia
To Kill A Mockingbird/ Harper Lee
Omnivore's Dilemma/ Michael Pollan
Cat's Cradle/ Kurt Vonnegut
Le Petit Prince/ Antoine de Saint-Exupery

Stephen Elsemore's List (poeting partner, Beat Brother, Hemingway/Kerouac/James Dean amalgam)
To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
Anna Karenina - Tolstoy
E.E. Cummings Complete Poems
Let Us Now Praise Famous Men - James Agee
The Brothers K - David James Duncan
Ragtime - E.L. Doctorow
Corelli's Madolin - Louis De Bernieres
One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
Moby Dick - Herman Melville
The Education of Little Tree - Forrest Carter
The Periodic Table - Primo Levi
Winnie the Pooh -A.A. Milne
Bel Canto - Ann Patchett
Morgan's Passing - Anne Tyler

Boog Highberger (Dadist, Mayoral guy, Mail Art Man)If on a Winter’s Night a Traveler/Italo Calvino
Catch-22/Joseph Heller
Trout Fishing in America/Richard Brautigan
Cat's Cradle/Kurt Vonnegut
The Illustrated Man/Ray Bradbury
Snake’s Nest/Ledo Ivo
In His Own Write/John Lennon
The Lover/Marguerite Duras
Amerika/Franz Kafka
In Patagonia/Bruce Chatwin
Erotism/Georges Bataille
Grist for the Mill/Baba Ram Dass
The Life of the Theater/Julian Beck
Open Secret/Rumi
The Three Christs of Ypsilanti/Milton Rokeach

A Few (Dozen) Good Reads

This is a long one, but there are some real gems in here. A friend of mine asked me to participate in a tag to list 15 books, in a few minutes, that made an impression and stuck with me. My few minute list was more like thirty-- but here it is. I sent the tag to some friends, and noticed that a lot of theirs were on my longer list. But there were also a few I'd never heard of, and now will be checking out. Feel free to add your list. It's been wonderful to see familiar and new titles in these.
I want to be clear my (and your) list isn't perfect-- I've since decided there are others that would bump some off. But do it quick, don't give much thought. I've included the replies I've received thus far from those who ok'd sharing them and will add others as they come in.

Traveling Mercies-- Annie Lamott Ruminations on faith by a Christian who's not afraid to use the F word
Love is a Dog from Hell-- Charles Bukowski Beat poetry
Franny and Zooey-- JD Salinger Family in all its idiosyncratic glory
A Year of Living Biblically--AJ Jacobs Esquire writer's attempt to follow the bible, literally and ludicrously, for 365 days
Yes Man-- Danny Wallace Another experimental year-- saying yes to everything-- funny and poignant
Mushrooms Demystified-- David Arora The be-all, end-all guide to everything fungal
Mr. Bloomfield's Orchard-- Nicholas P. Money A more British take on mycology
Therapy-- David Lodge Hilarious coming-of-middle-age novel
Be Here Now-- Ram Das This was my introduction to mindfulness and present moment, way way back in the day
The Lorax-- Dr. Suess Environmentalism for all ages
In and Out of the Garbage Pail-- Fritz Perls Found this in my dad's bookshelf when I was 12; decided to be a therapist
The Incredible Lightness of Being-- Milan Kundera Beautifully written novel by a great Czech author
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest-- Ken Kesey Local hero Kesey also influenced my career in mental health work
The Collected Works of ee cummings He kills me. Still.
Charlotte's Web-- E. B. White EB White was also an environmentalist, and a very wise man, who wrote of a splendid pig.

Now here are some from fellow travelers of the page, copied/pasted:

Aaron Zee's list
Leopold's Ghost (reading it a second time)
The Jungle
Slaughterhouse Five
Seabiscut
Portnoy's Complaint
Shosha
A Bend In The River
No Longer At Ease
The River
The World According To Garp
The Stranger
Murder in Amsterdam
The Crossing
Poisonwood Bible
A Thousand Acres
Candide

Juliana Zee's list
The bluest eye. Toni Morrison
black like me
Traveling mercies
Fall of the house of usher
girl with the pearl earring
bell jar
bastard out of carolina
an unquiet mind
diary of anne frank
wind in the willows
whats the matter with kansas
sociopath next door
for better or worse
catcher in the rye
the forest people

Ike Reser's list
A RIVER RUNS THROUGH IT
THE RIGHT STUFF
DOROTHY DAY (BY ROBERT COLES)
COLD MOUNTAIN
SALVATION ON SAND MOUNTAIN
THE COURTING OF MARCUS DUPREE
THE CHALLENGE OF JESUS
EAT THIS BOOK
UNDER THE BANNER OF HEAVEN
THE OMNIVORE'S DILEMMA
IN DEFENSE OF FOOD
ALL THE KINGS MEN
O JERUSALEM (COLLINS AND LAPIERRE)
LORD OF THE RINGS
U2 (FLANAGAN)
more to come...
Jana