 Dear Friends,
Here again is our annual Star Titles collection – all your favourite books in one magazine. It includes two whole pages of Books for Giving. These are titles that deserve to be spread around as widely as possible, so we're offering you even more savings when you buy extra copies to give to your friends.
We've also added a sprinkling of newly published or reprinted titles – books we feel sure will become your favourites as soon as you see them! Our personal favourite is Catherine Ingram's Passionate Presence – the clearest book yet on what it actually feels like to experience ‘the power of now’. You'll find an extract from Passionate Presence in our Inspirational Features: Passionate Presence by Catherine Ingram, and we found the following passage very helpful, too, so we'd like to share it with you:
‘There is a story of an old wise woman named Suko who lived in Japan and was known for her great joy. One day a man came to visit her and said, “I am very self-centred and unhappy most of the time. Please tell me how to become joyous.” Suko replied, “Whatever happens to you, simply say to the universe, ‘Thank you; thank you for everything. I have no complaints whatsoever.’ ” She told him to come back in a year and report to her his progress.
The man left and one year later returned to Suko. He reported that he had been doing what she had told him. He had been saying “thank you” for everything. But, alas, he was still self-absorbed and miserable. “Now what?” he asked.
And Suko said, “Again say, ‘Thank you. Thank you for all of it. I have no complaints whatsoever.’ ” It is said that the man realized in that moment the true power of gratitude, that there was no exception to what one can be thankful for, and that even his misery could be seen with appreciation. It had worn down his resistance, humbled him, and brought him to the wise woman. As the story goes, he entered into a stream of everlasting joy.
Some years ago when I was living in Portland, Oregon, the writer Andrew Harvey came to visit me when he was in town to lead a workshop. Upon his arrival on an unusually hot summer day, we went to the famous Japanese Gardens of Portland and then drove into town to do some errands. Errands completed, we walked back to where I thought we had parked the car, but the car was nowhere to be found. As we searched block after block, my mind raced to the possibility that the car had been stolen, as I knew that this particular area of town had a high rate of car theft.
Onward we paced in the midday heat. After nearly an hour I noticed that Andrew, who had a bad back, was beginning to move a lot more slowly. Tentatively, I asked him what was in his luggage that had been left in the car. “Well... my passport, the notes to my new manuscript, and seven hundred dollars in cash,” he said. “But you have lost your whole car,” he added sympathetically.
As we walked, Andrew remarked on the beautiful architecture of the buildings we were passing. He noted that, given the propensity for rain in Portland, we were lucky to be dry in our current endeavour. He stopped to admire a small vegetable garden in a front yard. Each time he spoke, it was to appreciate something of beauty. Soon, I found my own resistance to the lost car situation melting away. If the car was stolen, it was already gone. We would file the police reports and find a way home. There was no point in missing the lovely architecture and gardens along our way. So after a while, I too began to notice little aspects of sweet life that passed before me on that summer day: the smells from the street food vendors, an old lady smiling in a wheelchair with face turned to the sun, a boy unwrapping a newly purchased kite. We walked in a state of grace, in gratitude.
Eventually we found the car where I had evidently parked and mindlessly left it hours before. Although finding the car was a great relief, the time spent searching for it had been somehow delightful. Wherever there is real appreciation, delight is not far away. The attitude of gratitude is in itself one of the most valued components for delight. This attitude does not depend on the objects for which we are grateful; it is entirely subjective, a way of perceiving, a lens through which we view the world. The lens of gratitude.’
(From Passionate Presence, copyright by Catherine Ingram, 2003, published in the UK by HarperCollins.)
We wish you a summer spent in a state of grace, in gratitude. With love from all of us.
Geoff, Ann, Martyn, Jackie, Jacqueline, Eileen, Sarah, Regina, Irina, Penny, Belinda, Catherine, Richard, Graham, Brian, Phil, Bertel, Alison, Derek, Eddie, Jon, Sam & Pat
Text & photographs © Cygnus Books 21-Jun-2005
|
Messages from 
