Book Review: Stop, Drop, and Wiggle by Gaia Shawna Morrissette

Stop, Drop, and Wiggle

by Gaia Shawna Morrissette

2014: Balboa Press: Hay House. 103 pages $28.95

Pulling from her own experience, Gaia Morrissette offers detailed seven steps to lift yourself out of depression by wiggling. Can't be bummed if you're giggling and wiggling is the philosophy.

Step 1: STOP!
The beginning asks that you check in with your emotions. How are you? Really.

Step 2: OBSERVE
What's the universe telling you? The messages are there if you look for them.

Step 3: DROP
Take control of your feelings. They belong to you, not the other way around.

Step 4: WIGGLE!
Shake it baby!

Step 5: GRATITUDE
Find something to be grateful for. This exercise will help you feel better, no matter what.

Step 6: LOVE
List those things that make your life worth living.

Step 7 SHIT or get off the pot
Time to put it all into action.

The rest is simple but not necessarily easy: practice practice practice.

It is absolutely impossible to stay bummed out if you're wiggling your tush, as my grandma used to call it. Try it.

T = JRR Tolien

The son of English parents, Arthur Tolkien and Mabel Suffield, John Ronald Reuel and his brother Hilary were South African by birth. After the early death of his father, a bank clerk, Mabel returned with her sons to her childhood home of West Midland in England.

Not long after Mabel’s conversion to Catholicism, she was diagnosed with diabetes and died. John Ronald and Hilary were boarded with two different families until they became adults.

Even through this tumultuous upbringing, JRR Tolkien demonstrated his linguistic skills mastering Latin and Greek, as well as Gothic and Finnish. In his spare time he made up his own language and shared it with his friends and co-members of the Tea Club, Barrovian Society.

Completing his education, he served in World War I. After the war he worked various jobs until he eventually became a professor at Oxford. His academic career was unremarkable by Oxford standards. However, his social group was quite remarkable. The Inklings members included Own Barfield, CS Lewis and Charles Williams.

To read more about JRR Tolkien visit: http://www.tolkiensociety.org/

A Good Book

Even with technological advances of the internet, new devices that bring information instantly to the user, there is nothing quite like reading a good book.

Reading a book is more than information. A good book, a story book whether in short story form or extended to novel length, brings more than just information to the reader.

The tactile experience of a book creates a love affair with reading. The feel of quality paper, the turning of pages in a fine binding, the smooth sensuality of a good leather cover; there's nothing like it.

As time adds to the value of the story, it also adds to the sensory experience books provide. Aging paper gives first a hint then an intoxicating burst of vanilla & musty aging wood.

Are you a bibliophile? Indeed if you find that books fascinate you, entrance you or beckon to be bought because they feel good, smell good and satisfy your craving for adventure, fantasy or drama, you are in good company.  Famous Male Bibliophiles


Interested in aging books? You may enjoy this little tidbit from Richard at AbeBooks.com http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aUaInTfrDnA&feature=youtu.be

Villains Needed

What's a story without a villain? Nothing. 

We may not like the bad guy but we'd be no where without him. Writers and readers learn to love to hate the villains. 

Take the story Peter and Wendy. Peter, the boy who wouldn't grow up was interesting, the relationships between Wendy & Peter and Tinker Bell & Peter make a nice triangle but without Captain Hook and the Pirates, we'd be reading a travel story. 

We're sympathetic to the hero of the story but think of your favorite story, the villain moves the story along in ways that hold your attention. 

So the next time you love a story, don't just thank the hero, thank the villain too. 

2013 Begins

Are you a reader? Are you a bibliophile?

Here are some trivia:

The oldest book is the RigVeda which pre-date 4000 BC. The collection of hymn and texts included a description of astronomical  occurrences which provides an approximate dating.
http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/rigveda/

The second oldest surviving book is the Epic of Gilgamesh. Written in 2100 - 2000 BC in Mesopotamia, the current version dates from approximately 1600 BC. http://www.ancienttexts.org/library/mesopotamian/gilgamesh/

Project Gutenberg offers one of the largest collections of books on the internet. http://www.gutenberg.org/ 

 Bertrand, a book store located in Portugal, founded in 1732 is the oldest bookstore in the world. http://www.panoramio.com/photo/25180769

The largest Atlas in the world is on display in the British Library. It measures 5'10" x 3'5" and takes several people to lift it. The Klencke Atlas was made in 1660 by a Dutch mapmaker for the King of England, Charles II. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B0K8FKZkSr4

Which books do you intend to read in 2013??

Writer's Inspiration

Life happens and writers write about it. Well, that’s sometimes true. More often than not, life happens and writers write to vent their frustrations or create a new universe. I’ve done both.

All life is inspiration if we choose to see it that way. Wherever it comes from, the inspiration to write should be honored. Take notes of those moments when you think to yourself. This so-and-so should be the victim of a serial killer. Don’t kill him, just write about it.

Therapists often assign writing as a way to work through problems. These writings need not be fodder for blogs but they can be used as inspiration. For example: a certain 7^th grade English teacher was excellent as a pompous merchant in a short story. The butt-in-ski nose with the small half-moon glasses was priceless. I couldn’t make it up. But I did change his profession and exaggerated his character-traits to the delight of my editor.