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Reflections: Redesign Your Mind: The Breakthrough Program for Real Cognitive Change by Eric Maisel, PhD

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  For years, I’ve been smothered with internal negative self-talk derived from external influences such as conflicts, tragedies, and other traumatic experiences. The suffocation of the negative self-talk enabled me to live a life full of anger and insecurity. I know I am not alone in this debilitating conversation. All of us have some negative self-talk that inhibits the true person we are meant to be— confident and active individuals. The trick is how to rid ourselves of it so that we can breathe. When I started reading Redesign Your Mind , I loved the metaphor of the mind being a “room” that needs to be redesigned. The idea of restructuring the mind with a different way of thinking as one reconstructs/rearranges a room with various items to make it fresh and functional was easy to understand. Throughout the book, Dr. Maisel acted as an Interior Design professor to teach us how to redesign our “room “(mind) with different writing prompts in each chapter. Each chapter presented a new i
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Book Review: Just As I Am by Cicely Tyson

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Just As I Am   is a wonderful autobiography about the life of Cicely Tyson.  If you are a long admirer of the actress or you just discovered her, you will be intrigued about how she became one of the most respected performers of all time. The book delves into Ms. Tyson’s humble beginnings growing up in New York. She was from a hard-working class Caribbean family.   She had a complex relationship with her mother and father; she was a teen mother, and she had some complicated marriages. As for her acting background, Cicely Tyson was very choosey in her roles for the stage, film, and TV. She is most famous for portraying Miss Jane Pittman and Harriet Tubman as well as minor role as Kunte Kinte’s mother in the tv series Roots based on Alex Haley’s novel. Also, she starred in Busting Loose with controversial comedian Richard Pryor, which was something one would think was unusual because of the dignified work she was associated with.  But her role in Busting Loose was very dignified.  S
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Book Review: Blue Shoe by Anne Lamott

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This book was boring and Ann Lamott’s writing is annoyingly dry. I usually finish a book that I started ( it may take me a longer time if I drop off and pick it back up). But, this book I will not pick up again. I dropped off at page 18.
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Book Review: La Masa a Casa (The Dough at Home- An Italian-Latina Cookbook) by Stephanie Laterza

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La Masa A Casa: The Dough at Home-An Italian-Latina Cookbook by Stephanie Laterza My rating: 5 of 5 stars Not only does Stephanie Laterza supplies step-by-step recipes for her special doughs, empanadas, and pizza, but she gives us the backstories of these delicious creations. Stephanie Laterza wrote this book during the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic to provide a comfortable space during this unprecedented time. La Masa a Casa (The Dough at Home- An Italian-Latina Cookbook) is the storytelling cookbook that reminds us of those moments of why we have the joy of cooking! View all my reviews
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Reflection: Excerpt from Promise Me You Won't Go To Beirut Part 3 by George J. Thomas

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Available at  Amazon.com Nine years ago, I decided it would be interesting and challenging to paint pictures of some of my bonsais, however, in Chinese style using Xuan (rice) paper, Chinese inks and watercolors. On a visit to London’s China town, I purchased all the materials and instructional books I needed, from a Chinese art supplies shop. Back in Spain, I was dispirited to find it impossible to master the skill of painting in this medium without a teacher. Nevertheless continuing my interest in oriental arts, I joined a class in Spain, to learn the techniques of ikebana - the stylized minimalist flower arranging art of Japan. Originally designed for Japanese Bushi (warlords) and Samurai (warriors), it is now practiced and appreciated by people the world over. During several visits to London, I had further tuition in the art of ikebana from Tomoko a Japanese woman, a sensei or teacher of the art. George J.Thomas To my surprise, I discovered that the ikebana t
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Reflection: Excerpt from Promise Me You Won't Go To Beirut Part 2 by George J. Thomas

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Available at Amazon.com After having had a small stroke whilst working in Prague, and during my recovery period, my secretary and friend Zdenka persuaded me to go along to a major bonsai exhibition, being held in the gardens of one of the many palaces in Prague. I was completely enthralled by the bonsais, some of which were over 150 years old. This started me on my voyage of discovery.  I bought around ten bonsais and the tools, pots and materials which I needed.  jasmine orange bonsai (murraya paniculata) A ccording to the neurologist treating me, my small stroke was incompatible with the stressful business life I was leading, and I ended up retiring at the age of 58. Already having a house in Xàbia, we moved from Prague to Spain in February 1999. However, my bonsai collection did not take kindly to the move from the cold winter of Prague to the heat of an exceptionally warm and dry Spanish winter that year. During the course of the year, progressively all but one o
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Reflection: Excerpt from Promise Me You Won’t Go To Beirut! Part 1 by George J. Thomas

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Available at Amazon.com   As I begin the winter ritual of pruning, wiring, and the general tidying up of my bonsais after their summer growth, I reflect on the size which many of them have reached as they have grown and matured during the many years I have cared for them. Along the way, some of my bonsais have died, afflicted by old age or disease or inclement weather. Some trees have withered, branches covered in lichen mingling with living limbs, aging much like their human counterparts. The deciduous trees have lost their leaves, just as I have lost my hair. This work, and this particular winter have induced in me a certain degree of melancholia, having recently suffered a potentially life threatening illness. At the age of 72, I decided that I should commit to paper my life experiences, for my three children, and to give my eleven grandchildren a record of their grandfather. This will be an intriguing journey for me, delving into my mind, trying to resuscitate memories of t
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Reflection: Being a Two-fisted Reader

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Back in college, the thing to do besides going to classes was to go downtown to the bars. I use to go with my roommate on Thursday nights for the drink specials (Buy One Get One Free).  We would sit at the bar and savor the flavor of one of the BOGO drinks unlike the red-face guys standing in the corner with a beer in each hand laughing and talking with their friends.  The Two-fisted Drinkers (which I heard the guys refer to each other) would first guzzle the beer in their right hand and then their left until they were both empty.  The look of disappointment would gloss over their face.  They would sway back and forth slurring their words on their way back to the bar. Obvious, they did not need another round but insisted on it and the bartender would oblige. Personal library Photo by Sandra Proto Just thinking about this reminds me of reading two books at once. Even though I am not like the guys who are two-fisted drinkers, I usually only have one book in my hand but I go
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Reflection: A Lesson Before Dying

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Nine months ago I finished reading A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest J. Gaines. I initially gave it a four-star rating because I felt it was lacking in showing Jefferson’s side of the story.   If you have never read A Lesson Before Dying , the story is about a young man who was found guilty of murdering a liquor store owner during a robbery and was executed.   Jefferson is a young man who is described as being “slow” and who follows two young men into the liquor store. Jefferson claims that one of the two men was the one that killed the liquor store owner. When the police officers arrived, they found all three men dead and Jefferson taking money from the cash register.   Jefferson went to trial for the robbery and murder of the liquor store owner.   His lawyer tried to establish his innocent by comparing him to a “hog.”   This comparison of “hog” brings me to Claude McKay’s poem about the race riots of 1919, If We Must Die : If we must die, let it not be like hogs Hunted and p
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Reflection: 2011 Reading Challenge

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This year, I participated in the Goodreads Reading Challenge .  I am happy to report that I completed my challenge of five books (I know this may seem like a small amount, but these were the books that I chose to read as compared to the array of books requested by my daughters at bedtime). Femme du Monde: Poems  by Patricia Spears Jones Quicksand and Passing by Nella Larsen Glorious by Bernice L. McFadden Rhythms by Donna Hill Half-Lit House by Tina Chang I am currently, reading The Yellow House on the Corner by Rita Dove and A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle for 2012.
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