The Gifts of Imperfection…book review

The Gifts of Imperfection…book review

give your arm to a loved one…

 

 

Book review:

 

The Gifts of Imperfection:

Let Go of Who You Think You’re Supposed to Be

and Embrace Who You Are

 

by Dr. C. Brené Brown (b1965)

Center City, MN: Hazelden, 2010

135 pages

 

Dr. Brown offers this “tough lesson” from her life:

“How much we know and understand ourselves is critically important,

but there is something that is even more essential to living a Wholehearted life:

                                              loving ourselves.”

 

This book moved me to think about changing the way I think about life, and my life.

Give yourself a gift: take time to read The Gifts of Imperfection and then D.I.G. into your life.

That is, start consciously thinking about wholehearted living and tell yourself a lot of truth, and then:

 

Get Deliberate about doing the right things for you, in all your glorious imperfections,

Get Inspired to acknowledge what you’re doing in all your loving relationships, and

Get Going, take the next steps in actually living a love affair with yourself and all you can be…

…and don’t mind if you stumble now and then, and give your arm to a loved one now and then…

…and have good intentions, and take the agony and the ecstasy as they come.

 

Quote is from The Gifts of Imperfection, p. xi.

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Book review. Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2024 All rights reserved.

 

Book review:

American Scripture:

Making the Declaration of Independence

…basically, it’s trash talk to King George

by Pauline Maier

click here

Writing Rainbows: Poems for Grown-Ups with 59 free verse and haiku poems,
and the rest of my poetry books are for sale on Amazon (paperback and Kindle)
and free in Kindle Unlimited, search Amazon for “Richard Carl Subber”

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“Dear blue sky…”…my poem

“Dear blue sky…”…my poem

thinking blue…

 

 

Re: sky

 

Dear blue sky,

 

Suddenly I know that you are always here,

and suddenly you seem

   more of a comfort than I had known.

 

I want to think more

   about tomorrow’s day,

and the streaming days of summer,

and the stormy days

   that hide your blue

      by luring clouds to linger,

but you are always here.

 

You are what I see,

you make me think to raise my eyes,

and I do.

 

June 29, 2024

Inspired by Mike Franklyn

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My poetry. Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2024 All rights reserved.

 

Book review: Thieves in the Night

Arthur Koestler’s story of Galilee, before Israel…

click here

Writing Rainbows: Poems for Grown-Ups with 59 free verse and haiku poems,
and the rest of my poetry books are for sale on Amazon (paperback and Kindle)
and free in Kindle Unlimited, search Amazon for “Richard Carl Subber”

 

Your comments are welcome—tell me what you’re thinking.

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“Life is wide.”

“Life is wide.”

A lesson for mornings…

 

 

“Life is wide. There’s room to take a new run at it.”

 

Ivan Doig (1939-2015)

American novelist

 

Our country is suffering in these parlous times. Optimism isn’t the first thing I think of when I wake each morning.

Nevertheless, this epigram from Ivan Doig is a lesson.

I’m going to keep working hard at taking a new run at life.

The track is wide, indeed.

There’s room to do some good things.

 

By the way, it’s a good bet you’ll like everything by Ivan Doig. My favorite is This House of Sky, his memoir of growing up in Montana. The Bartender’s Tale is really good, too.

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Book review. Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2024 All rights reserved.

Home Team: Poems About Baseball (book review)

Edwin Romond hits another homer…

click here

Seeing far: Selected poems with 47 free verse and haiku poems,
and the rest of my poetry books are for sale on Amazon (paperback and Kindle)
and free in Kindle Unlimited, search Amazon for “Richard Carl Subber”

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that rhyming thing…

that rhyming thing…

orange you going to read this?

 

 

Someone said, “Nothing rhymes with orange.” 

I said, “No, it doesn’t.

 

Take your time with this one.

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Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2024 All rights reserved.

 

For a change of pace,

read this book review

of one woman’s desperate childhood,

The Homeplace by Marilyn Nelson

click here

As with another eye: Poems of exactitude with 55 free verse and haiku poems,
and the rest of my poetry books are for sale on Amazon (paperback and Kindle)
and free in Kindle Unlimited, search Amazon for “Richard Carl Subber”

*   *   *   *   *   *

Can cats talk?..“Cat talk,” my poem

Can cats talk?..“Cat talk,” my poem

talking to the animals…

 

 

Cat talk

 

She’s doing her cat thing,

nothing better to do.

Maybe that’s true,

but she won’t say it’s so,

 

she won’t budge,

and she won’t hunch a shoulder

   in that warm spot,

and she won’t blink a yes or no

   when you ask

      the simplest thing,

or tilt her head

   when you say hello,

 

she keeps her peace,

she stares as you bend down

   to stroke her head,

she waits while you think about

   leaving her alone,

 

maybe she can talk,

but doesn’t want to.

 

July 9, 2024

inspired by “Undercover Agent,” a painting by Jan Byrne

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My poetry. Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2024 All rights reserved.

 

Book review: The Comanche Empire

the other story of the American West…

by Pekka Hämäläinen

click here

Above all: Poems of dawn and more with 73 free verse poems,

and the rest of my poetry books are for sale on Amazon (paperback and Kindle)

and free in Kindle Unlimited, search Amazon for “Richard Carl Subber”

 

Your comments are welcome—tell me what you’re thinking.

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