Comfort and Joy - Simple Ways to Care for Ourselves and Others Author: Colette Lafia Conari Press 2008 ISBN #978-57324-351-3 "Comfort and Joy" - the title says it all! Most of us tend to make our personal welfare one of the last things that we attend to - putting work, family, friends, and the laundry first and foremost. Whoever knew that taking care of ourselves was a learned thing? And it really doesn't have to be. There are many opportunities on a daily basis for each of us to comfort ourselves, and make a difference in our personal world, and in the world around us. When we comfort ourselves, it becomes that much easier to comfort those around us in a very real way. This isn't a book of platitudes - it was born out of the genuine pain the author was experiencing in her own life - pain coming from the death of her sister due to cancer (at a relatively young age), to her realization that she was, on a very deep level, no longer satisfied with the work that she was doing, and her very real battle with insomnia. Presented here is a collection of forty-five vignettes, drawn from the authors life, that show us how daily rituals, like drinking a cup of tea or coffee, can ground, center, and comfort us. Lafia starts out with a list of things that comfort her - at the top of her list is cinnamon toast. What wonderful memories that brings back! I still go there, from time to time, sometimes when things are good, but most often when they are bad. What does that tell me! I need to bring my comforts into my life on a more consistent basis! In her introduction, Lafia refers to comfort as a refuge - a warm, comforting blanket that we draw around ourselves. It is there in so many ways - in a cup of coffee or tea, in our morning shower, in taking the time to admire the flowers in our yard. It is reaching out to others, listening to them patiently, honoring their lives. It is all of the little things in life - things that we can access by living a conscious, authentic life. Some of the subjects that Lafia touches on in her vignettes include acceptance, calling, circles, cloths, creating, the garden, giving, holding, journaling, laughter, love, moments, prayer, rain, and reading. Each vignette includes a short personal story, a short paragraph on how to cultivate a specific comfort, and a few words about what each comfort is in your life. The second section is focused on remembering comfort, and how Lafia came to recognize it in her life. The third section is focused on bringing comfort into the world - noting when others need comfort, recognizing in what way they need it, and offering it to them. The fourth section is focused on applying comfort in your daily life. This section is a gift to her readers, because it makes not of things that we all recognize, but often fail to pay attention to. "Comfort and Joy" will make a profound difference in your life, and in the lives of those around you. It is not meant to be read from page one to page one hundred and thirty-one - it is meant to fill a need at a given moment (from my point of view, not the author's), and those needs will change from moment to moment. I feel so strongly about this book that I am including it in a list of reference books that I include in my work on feminine personal empowerment. Read this material for yourself, and see what you come away with! © May 2008 Bonnie Cehovet Personal Lifestyle Reading - I offer a Personal Lifestyle Reading using Tarot that looks at past, present and future influences in your life, at the energies that are currently available to help you along your path, and at those energies that are appearing as challanges. My goal is to offer you insight into your decision making process, as well as tools that you can use to both better understand your path and make conscious, choice centered decisions. Home Personal Empowerment Personal Empowerment links Graphics by Art for the web