Being Home #2

Another small passion of mine is writing. Not in the mystery or general fiction genre but just my own concordant musings and ramblings. I'm even putting together a "history" of me to leave to my kids someday - complete with pictures! Absolutely nothing in it is negative. It's just small remembrances about my childhood and some things from theirs also as I remember those little things that pop into my mind as a young mother.

One of my all time favorite authors on lifestyle is Alexandra Stoddard. I absolutely love her books. I bought Living A Beautiful Life over 20 years ago and use it as a coloring book. Yep, that's right, chickees, a coloring book and a guide for living. The illustrations are black and white but this woman is passionate about color. Hmmmmm, go figure. This book absolutely changed my life.

Anyway, it is what has shaped my life most outside of the scriptures. I read it from time to time to see what I can do next to live even more beautifully. I truly think of life as beautiful.

Living Beautifully Together was the second book I bought of hers. Also a wonderful book outside of scriptures.

Passionate Love Letters was a gift to me from a young woman in my Young Women's class at church. (If she was thinking "passionate" maybe I failed her, hmmmm???!!!) But no, it isn't about the physical passion but rather being passionate about someone. The letters were not lurid in their detail, but love letters from Napoleon to Josephine, George Bernard Shaw to Beatrice Campbell, Gustave Flaubert to Louise Colet and Agnes deMille to Walter Prude to name just a few. Inside the book are little envelopes, some extremely tiny, and letters in them copied from the originals. What a delight! But it intrigued me to write. Oh, not passionate letters, just write anything.

Everyday Letters for all Occasions is simply the best book to have around when you can't think of what to write to someone or don't know how to write effective letters. I love this book and have used it for reference over the years. Plus it gives you ideas and good "writing style" with which to develop your own.

Another one of Stoddard's books that I like is Daring To Be Yourself, but I truly try to be as the Lord wants me to be. Oh, that's not to say I can't be chuckly and have a sense of humor but I don't like hurting people for my own self-gratification. That's NOT to say I haven't done it. Not at all. I am, after all, very human; it's just that I try to be ALL I can be - kind, loving, humble (working hard on that one!), charitable and just all around good person. I work at maintaining my individuality also. I'm first and foremost a child of God and then just me - a unique individual/woman/wife/mother/sister/friend. This helps me to do just that but the scriptures take precedence over all of the books I have.