Tag Archives: book review

What I’m Reading: The Bowl of Light

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Aloha and mahalo…

Year’s end often brings reflection and this book about light is a gratifying metaphor for ending 2022 and starting fresh with a full bowl of love and light in 2023.

The symbol of a bowl of light holds a relevant message to help us explore our limitations, how we can commit to releasing them, and learn to live in harmony.

I wrote about this book in Giving Thanks and since then, I received it as a thoughtful gift and I’m enjoying it so much that I wanted to share it with everyone.

In 1996, a revered Hawaiian elder befriended an American anthropologist, and from their rare and intimate rapport, something miraculous emerged. Through the words and teachings of the kahuna wisdom-keeper Hale Makua, Dr. Wesselman was gifted with an enhanced perspective into the sacred knowledge of ancient Hawaii.

Author Hank Wesselman, PhD, is a paleoanthropologist and shamanic teacher who has worked with noted anthropologists investigating the mysteries of human origins in Africa.

Before his passing, elder Makua encouraged Dr. Wesselman to convey much of what had passed between them to the wider world, giving him permission to share his spiritual knowledge, including:

The Bowl of Light—how we can restore our natural divine radiance
• The three directives of the spiritual warrior—love with humility, live with reverence, and know with self-discipline
• Rituals for communing with nature, receiving wisdom from the spirit world, purifying our consciousness, and more
• The Ancestral Grand Plan—exploring the path our ancestors set in motion millennia ago, and how the Plan is playing out across the world today

***

Along with the the ancient Hawaiian practice of Ho’oponopono about forgiveness, there’s a lot of wisdom we can gain from native Hawaiian culture.

“I’m sorry, Please forgive me, Thank you, I love you.”

***

I started to research more of the island’s ancestral traditions and discovered the Huna Principles from Kauai, one of the most beautiful places on this planet.

Ho’ihi . . . Respect

The seven principles of Huna were passed down as part of another Hawaiian family’s oral tradition – the Kahili family of Kauai and these have been presented in a contemporary form by Serge Kahili King. The story of the Bowl of Light provides an illustration of these Huna principles in action as follows:

Ike: Awareness

The story teaches us to become aware of how the choices we make can affect us for better or worse. It is valuable to become aware of the extent that your own bowl is comprised of stones or light. Awareness provides the starting point for change.

Kala: Freedom

We can limit and constrain ourselves to such a point that it is as though we stop growing, we get stuck. When we experience, and hang onto, emotions such as fear, anger and jealousy, it is like we are dropping another stone into our bowl which means we experience less light. We can also free ourselves from such limitations and flourish. We have the ability to release limitations.

Makia: Focus

We choose where to focus- either towards empowering feelings and behaviours or away from feelings and behaviours that disempower us. The choice is ours in any given moment.

Manawa: Presence

The light is always there, even if at times it seems to be fully obscured by stones. If we so choose, change can be quick and it is never too late to change. We can simply turn the bowl upside down and let go of the all the stones and make room for the light.

Aloha: Love

Love and heart-centered practices increase our strength and well-being. To love is to be happy with – we experience light to the extent that we focus on aloha – light and stone cannot occupy the same space. To the extent that we have light in our bowl, we are connected to our true nature and spirit. We are all connected and our own individual light contributes to lighting the world for everyone.

Mana: Power

We have the power to make changes in our life for the better. It is up to us to take responsibility and be the authority in our own life.

Pono: Effectiveness

The tale is a metaphor for living effectively. It reminds us how we can be pono – in a state of harmony with oneself, others, nature and life itself.

Pete Dalton ©2020.  This article first appeared on Aloha International.

Looking For a Great Read? Here’s One: The Lost Girls of Paris

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If you’re searching for something to read, here’s a suggestion…

From Pam Jenoff, author of The Orphan’s Tale, The Lost Girls of Paris is a remarkable yet tragic story of friendship and resolute spirit by a ring of female spies trained in Britain during World War II.

Way more brave than I could ever hope to become, this book is vividly rendered and inspired by true events. Jenoff shines a light on the incredible heroics of these spies and weaves a mesmerizing tale of courage, sisterhood, and the great strength of women to survive almost anything in the face of danger.

But really, who knows how we might answer the call to save our children from another Nazi-like regime, right? As we all aware, mama bears are tenacious and fierce!

The Best Books to Read This Summer

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If you’re fascinated (like I am) about the what goes on behind the scenes in Hollywood with BIG DEALS and BIG MONEY, you will love these books.

I’m talking about the kind of book you can’t put down; the kind where you’re in limbo-time, in a trancelike state — and where you are so invested in the characters that you hope the book never ends — but you can’t wait to get to the last page to see how the author ties everything up — only to discover that there’s a sequel to the first book.

And it’s just as awesome.

If you’ve been following my blog for a while, you know that I live an Enchanted Life on the edge of fantasy. Reality for me is, at best, a road not taken.

Although reality can and does rear its ugly head at odd and unexpected moments, that’s the best time for a well-written chick lit novel or two to transport me on a magic carpet ride back to the Land of Princess Rosebud and all that is sparkly.

According to Wikipedia, Chick lit is genre fiction which addresses issues of modern womanhood, often humorously and lightheartedly.

Although this is definitely chick lit, it’s so well written and the characters are so well fleshed out and alive, you’ll be as pleasantly surprised as I was.

(My Ph.D. DIL was as obsessed as I was, so it’s not just me.)

Clare Naylor and Mimi Hare met and became a fantastic writing team. Clare is the author of Love: A User’s Guide and Catching Alice.

Mimi was the director of development at Gracie Films, the company responsible for Jerry Maguire and As Good As It Gets.

They draw upon their own real life experiences for a riveting behind-the-scenes look at what goes on in Hollywood.

I loved reading these novels and I hope you will enjoy them too. Even though they came out a few years ago, it’s still fresh and relevant.

Read The Second Assistant FIRST:

thesecondassistant

Read The First Assistant NEXT:

First Assstant

Book Review: “The Elegance of the Hedgehog”

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hedgehog-erinaceus-europaeus-tiny{Spoiler alert if you haven’t read the book yet. Save this post for another time so you can share your thoughts with me.}

I read it. Twice. I read it all the way through really fast like I do and then I read it again to allow the flavor of certain phrases and thoughts to mellow and grow.

I loved it. I hated it.

The ending didn’t change the second time I read it, and for that I am really, really upset! The last scene is forever indelibly etched in my brain.

I was rooting for both of the major characters. I wanted Paloma to find her power as an intelligent and witty young girl and want to live, and I urged Renee to realize how brilliant she was and how she deserved love, and that even in our fifties, we can feel special.

What I didn’t expect was the end. I never saw it coming, just like Renee never saw the drycleaner’s van before it hit her. And that’s it. No hospital, no recovery, no happy conclusion with all the loose ends tied up in a pretty pink polka dot bow. I like my stories delivered to me with happily ever afters. I don’t like to fall in love with a character who feels like a real person and then have her torn away from me!

Paloma contemplated suicide, but will blossom like the camellias Renee grew. Renee died the moment she found a reason to live.

It was released as a film, “The Hedgehog” in 2011. It’s on Netflix and I’ll watch it tomorrow, ‘cos tonight’s “Downton Abbey“. It’s not like I don’t know how it ENDS!

FINAL THOUGHTS: I loved it. I hated it. It was totally worth reading. Twice.
What did YOU think?

Parts of the following synopsis is partly from The New York Times By CARYN JAMES and is partly by me.

By Muriel Barbery and translated by Alison Anderson, “The Elegance of the Hedgehog” was a best seller in France and several other countries. The novel’s two narrators alternate chapters, but the book is dominated by Renée, a widowed concierge in her 50s who calls herself “short, ugly and plump,” a self-consciously stereotypical working-class nobody. She is also an autodidact — “a permanent traitor to my archetype,” as she drolly puts it — who takes refuge in aesthetics and ideas but thinks life will be easier if she never lets her knowledge show.

Her unlikely counterpart is Paloma, a precocious 12-year-old whose family lives in the fashionable building Renée cares for. Paloma believes the world is so meaningless that she plans to commit suicide when she turns 13.

Renée’s story is addressed to no one, while Paloma’s takes the form of a notebook crammed with what she labels “profound thoughts.” Both create eloquent little essays on time, beauty and the meaning of life, Renée with erudition and Paloma with adolescent brio.

Both skewer the class-conscious people in the building: Paloma observes the inanity of her parents and her sister while Renée knows that such supposedly bright lights never see past the net shopping bag she carries, its epicurean food hidden beneath turnips. Both appreciate beauty. What Renée calls “a suspension of time that is the sign of a great illumination,” Paloma experiences while watching a rosebud fall.

The sharp-eyed Paloma guesses that Renée has “the same simple refinement as the hedgehog,” quills on the outside but “fiercely solitary — and terribly elegant” within.  The lives of both characters perk up when the rich, mysterious, charmingly attentive Mr. Ozu moves into the building. Not only does he completely renovate his apartment, he does virtually the same to Renee, bringing her new clothes, a new friendship, and a raison d’etre.