This book won’t change your life.
But it might change how you live it.
Life can be tough, even in the best of times. But life in a pandemic (and in the ‘new normal’ afterward) requires a special sort of staying power. Can we do what must be done without giving up? Can we hold fast to our center?
We build staying power by …
- nurturing gratitude
- increasing resilience
- practicing patience
- developing empathy and compassion
- appreciating the beauty of what’s true
- keeping faith with ourselves and others
This inspiring collection of soulful musings and poetry will companion you through the remaining pandemic into the uncharted territory of the ‘new normal.’ Read to remind yourself how resilient you are. Read to remember that your spirit is bigger than your anxieties and worries, your wounds and losses. Read to remember you’re not alone.
Table des matières
- Introduction xiii
- Retreat I: Visitation 1
- For the Sake of One We Love & Are Losing 5
- Loose Pieces of Tumbling Glass 9
- On My 58th Birthday: 58 Pandemic Prayers 13
- Who Says You’re Alone? 16
- Here’s to Spiced Fish with Orange Sauce 19
- Signature on the Letter of History 22
- Letters from a Park Bench 25
- Pomp Amid Circumstances 28
- Blessings in Camouflage 31
- We Are the Medicine 35
- Good Trouble 39
- The One True Thing 42
- Let’s Start with a Poem 46
- You Don’t Want to Go There 48
- The Secret of Blooming 51
- A Ripple of Kindness 54
- On the Cemetery Road 58
- Circling the Pond 60
- The Patient Way South 64
- River 67
- Laughing at the Silver Linings 69
- The Dugnad in Our DNA 75
- If You Ever Wonder 79
- The Same Job As Always 81
- Pandemic Letter to My 17-Year-Old Son 84
- Laughing in the Dark 87
- Hiking the Loop 91
- The Table & the Tap 93
- Covering Our Part of the Garden 96
- Hard Freeze 100
- The Clarinet in the Attic 102
- The Next Thing that Love Demands 106
- To Walk the Labyrinth of Peace 108
- Let Me Carry You on My Back 113
- What Could Keep You Warmer Than This? 117
- What if I Said You’re Beautiful? 121
- Slice of Pie 125
- In Line at the Grocery Store, 6PM 129
- Love Letter to America 130
- Living the Long Wait 134
- Looking Up 138
- Across the Dark & Swirling Field 140
- In Tribute to Lighthouses 145
- Diagnosis 149
- A Great Stack of Wood 151
- All Our Beautiful Dots & Lines 155
- Ladder 160
- Keeping Faith with Ourselves 162
- Retreat II: For Love of You 166
- Promise 172
- Notes 175
- Acknowledgments 177
- About the Author 181
- Also by Phyllis Cole-Dai 183
A propos de l’auteur
Phyllis Cole-Dai began pecking away on an old manual typewriter in childhood and never stopped. She has authored or edited more than ten books in multiple genres, seeking to ‘write across what divides us.’ Originally from Ohio, she now resides in Brookings, South Dakota. Learn more at https://phylliscoledai.com.