Hi y’all,

Well, this is inter­est­ing. I’m try­ing to include a table in this post, and that appar­ently is tricky.

So, as I’ve writ­ten below, I want to include an ‘alter­nate week’ post on this blog. It’s a way to pro­vide you with rec­om­men­da­tions about books and music, and to add sug­ges­tions about Body­work, sex­u­al­ity, and other top­ics of interest.

This issue has two book rec­om­men­da­tions, as well as a note about “The Lilac Fes­ti­val,” com­plete with photos.

I’ve included links to Amazon.com and Amazon.ca for your con­ve­nience. If you’re con­sid­er­ing buy­ing either of these books, please use the links below and help sup­port our work!

Hard­core Zen

A cou­ple of months ago, I sub­scribed to Shamb­hala Sun, and found a men­tion of this book. I was intrigued by the title AND the sub­ti­tle, which is “Punk Rock, Mon­ster Movies, and the Truth about Real­ity.” I ordered the book, and thor­oughly enjoyed it.

Brad Warner, the author, makes it clear that all that there is, is all that there is. Noth­ing and every­thing is sacred, noth­ing and every­thing is pro­fane. Unless we get this, as an inter­nal ‘felt sense’, we are doomed, as is the world. And the thing we ‘get’ is that liv­ing in our heads as opposed to in the essence of the moment, is the cause of our distress.

You really want to read this book!

The 4-Hour Workweek

Another ele­gant book, and I’m frus­trated, because the author is 29. He’s fig­ured out a way to lever­age his Inter­net busi­ness into an out­sourced huge income, free­ing him to live his life any­where in the world. He asks us to ques­tion the wis­dom of slav­ing for 40 years in order to ‘enjoy’ a retire­ment that may never happen.

If you are con­sid­er­ing a close exam­i­na­tion of how you are liv­ing, what you are putting off, and what you are set­tling for (the cubi­cle nation, per­haps?) have a look at this book. You just might find a way to pack it in and join us next year in Costa Rica!

The joys of Canada, Hik­ing, and the Lilac Festival

Dar­bella and I have got­ten back into the ‘week­end 10 km. hike’ habit. Last week­end we dis­cov­ered a bike and hike path in Kitch­ener (where we live) the runs along a for­mer rail­road right-of-way. We hiked 5 kliks, had lunch, and hiked back. We even met one of my favourite clients on the way.
Yes­ter­day, we headed off to Burling­ton, to the Royal Botan­i­cal Gar­dens. It’s ‘Lilac Fes­ti­val’ time, and we had a riot smelling, then going to a 10 km hike through lovely Ontario bush.

thought you might like to see a photo or two: