Twelve Steps to a Compassionate Life ~ by Karen Armstrong

Karen Armstrong won the 2008 TED Prize and with it her "wish to change the world."  Her goal was to create a Charter for Compassion.  You can view the video of her "TED Prize Wish" on the Charter for Compassion homepage (on the right side of the page).  Thousands of people contributed to the process and the Charter was unveiled around the world in November 2009.  I'm one of the original signers.  The organization has inspired community-based acts of compassion all over the world.

Twelve Steps to a Compassionate Life ~ by Karen Armstrong, 2010

In this important and thought-provoking work, Karen Armstrong — one of the most original thinkers on the role of religion in the modern world — provides an impassioned and practical guide to helping us make the world a more compassionate place.  The twelve steps she suggests are listed below.  She shares concrete methods to help us cultivate and expand our capacity for compassion and provides a reading list to encourage us to “hear one another’s narratives.”  She teaches us that becoming a compassionate human being is a lifelong project and a journey filled with rewards.

The First Step ~ Learn About Compassion
The Second Step ~ Look at Your Own World
The Third Step ~ Compassion for Yourself
The Fourth Step ~ Empathy
The Fifth Step ~ Mindfulness
The Sixth Step ~ Action
The Seventh Step ~ How Little We Know
The Eighth Step ~ How Should We Speak to One Another?
The Ninth Step ~ Concern for Everybody
The Tenth Step ~ Knowledge
The Eleventh Step ~ Recognition
The Twelfth Step ~ Love Your Enemies

I have set up my Book Buddies blog to study this book by taking one step a month.  Each month, I'll post something about that chapter, and our discussion will be in the comments on that month's post.  Click to leave a comment on the Book Buddies post, if you want to study with us.  You are welcome to join us, even if you don't get the book, since this is an action-based study (see the next paragraph).  You will, of course, learn even more from reading the book.

The goal of this study is not to "learn about" compassion, but to PRACTICE compassion.  The Charter for Compassion has provided an organizer's guide which includes discussion questions, but also includes ACTIONS for each of the twelve sections.  In other words, we will practice being compassionate during the month we discuss each step.

Monday Mindfulness ~ meditate

This is the best I can do today, on this day when we planned the memorial service for my friend Jane Yelliott, who died yesterday morning.

Sunday Salon ~ books for Christmas

Books, books, always more books.  The nice thing about having a roomy is that I also get to read the books she gets, and she gets to read mine.  Here are the latest arrivals, as gifts and as book orders she or I placed.

The Dovekeepers ~ by Alice Hoffman, 2011, fiction (Israel)

Nearly two thousand years ago, nine hundred Jews held out for months against armies of Romans on Masada, a mountain in the Judean desert.  According to the ancient historian Josephus, two women and five children survived.  Based on this tragic and iconic event, Hoffman’s novel is a spellbinding tale of four extraordinarily bold, resourceful, and sensuous women, each of whom has come to Masada by a different path.  Yael’s mother died in childbirth, and her father, an expert assassin, never forgave her for that death.  Revka, a village baker’s wife, watched the murder of her daughter by Roman soldiers; she brings to Masada her young grandsons, rendered mute by what they have witnessed.  Aziza is a warrior’s daughter, raised as a boy, a fearless rider and expert marksman who finds passion with a fellow soldier.  Shirah, born in Alexandria, is wise in the ways of ancient magic and medicine, a woman with uncanny insight and power.  The lives of these four complex and fiercely independent women intersect in the desperate days of the siege.  All are dovekeepers, and all are also keeping secrets — about who they are, where they come from, who fathered them, and whom they love.

In the Country of the Young ~ by Lisa Carey, 2000, fiction (Maine)

On a stormy November night in 1848, a ship carrying more than a hundred Irish emigrants ran aground twenty miles off the coast of Maine.  Many were saved, but some were not — including a young girl who died crying out the name of her brother.  In the present day, the artist Oisin MacDara lives in self-imposed exile on Tiranogue — the small island where the shipwrecked Irish settled.  The past is Oisin's curse, as memories of the twin sister who died tragically when he was a boy haunt him still.  Then on a quiet All Hallows' Eve, a restless spirit is beckoned into his home by a candle flickering in the window:  the ghost of the girl whose brief life ended on Tiranogue's shore more than a century earlier.  In Oisin's house she seeks comfort and warmth, and a chance at the life that was denied her so long ago.   For a lonely man chained by painful memories, nothing will ever be the same again.

The Mermaids Singing ~ by Lisa Carey, 1998, fiction (Ireland)

Somewhere off the west coast of Ireland lies Inis Murúch — the Island of the Mermaids — a world where myth is more powerful that truth and where the sea sings with the healing and haunting voices of women.  Lisa Carey weaves together the voices and lives of three generations of Irish and Irish-American women.  Years ago, Clíona — strong, proud, and practical — sailed for Boston, determined to one day come home.  But when the time came to return to Inis Murúch, her daughter Grace — fierce, beautiful, and brazenly sexual — resented her mother's isolated, unfamiliar world.  Though entranced by the sea and its healing powers, Grace became desperate to escape the confines of the island, one day stealing away with her small daughter Graínne.  Now Graínne — motherless at fifteen after Grace's death — is about to be taken back across the ocean by Clíona, repeating the journey her mother was forced to make years before.  She goes to meet a father she has never known, her heart pulled between a life where she no longer belongs and a family she cannot remember.  On the rocky shore of Inis Murúch, she waits for her father and begins to discover her own sexual identity even as she struggles to understand the forces that have torn her family apart.

Leaving Home ~ by Anita Brookner, 2005, fiction (France)

At twenty-six, Emma Roberts comes to the painful realization that if she is ever to become truly independent, she must leave her comfortable London flat and venture into the wider world.  This entails not only breaking free from a claustrophobic relationship with her mother, but also shedding her inherited tendency toward melancholy.  Once settled in a small Paris hotel, Emma befriends Franoise Desnoyers, a vibrant young woman who offers Emma a glimpse into a turbulent life so different from her own.  In this exquisite new novel of self-discovery, Booker Prize-winner Anita Brookner addresses one of the great dramas of our lives:  growing up and leaving home.

The Septembers of Shiraz ~ by Dalia Sofer, 2007, fiction (Iran), 8/10

In the aftermath of the Iranian revolution, rare-gem dealer Isaac Amin is arrested, wrongly accused of being a spy. Terrified by his disappearance, his family must reconcile a new world of cruelty and chaos with the collapse of everything they have known. As Isaac navigates the terrors of prison, and his wife feverishly searches for him, his children struggle with the realization that their family may soon be forced to embark on a journey of incalculable danger.

The First Phone Call from Heaven ~ by Mitch Albom, 2013, fiction (Michigan), 9/10

One morning in the small town of Coldwater, Michigan, the phones start ringing.  The voices say they are calling from heaven.  Is it the greatest miracle ever?  Or some cruel hoax?  As news of these strange calls spreads, outsiders flock to Coldwater to be a part of it.  At the same time, a disgraced pilot named Sully Harding returns to Coldwater from prison to discover his hometown gripped by "miracle fever."  Even his young son carries a toy phone, hoping to hear from his mother in heaven.  As the calls increase, and proof of an afterlife begins to surface, the town — and the world — transforms.  Only Sully, convinced there is nothing beyond this sad life, digs into the phenomenon, determined to disprove it for his child and his own broken heart.

The Case for God ~ by Karen Armstrong, 2009

Armstrong provides a balanced, nuanced understanding of the role religion plays in human life and the trajectory of faith in modern times.  Why has God become incredible?  Why is it that atheists and theists alike now think and speak about God in a way that veers so profoundly from the thinking of our ancestors?  Moving from the Paleolithic Age to the present, Armstrong details the lengths to which humankind has gone to experience a sacred reality that it called God, Brahman, Nirvana, Allah, or Dao.  She examines the diminished impulse toward religion in our own time when a significant number of people either want nothing to do with God or question the efficacy of faith.  With her trademark depth of knowledge and profound insight, Armstrong elucidates how the changing world has necessarily altered the importance of religion at both societal and individual levels.  And she makes a powerful, convincing argument for structuring a faith that speaks to the needs of our dangerously polarized age.

Twelve Steps to a Compassionate Life ~ by Karen Armstrong, 2010

In this important and thought-provoking work, Karen Armstrong — one of the most original thinkers on the role of religion in the modern world — provides an impassioned and practical guide to helping us make the world a more compassionate place.  The twelve steps she suggests are listed below.  She shares concrete methods to help us cultivate and expand our capacity for compassion and provides a reading list to encourage us to “hear one another’s narratives.”  She teaches us that becoming a compassionate human being is a lifelong project and a journey filled with rewards.

The First Step: Learn About Compassion
The Second Step: Look at Your Own World
The Third Step: Compassion for Yourself
The Fourth Step: Empathy
The Fifth Step: Mindfulness
The Sixth Step: Action
The Seventh Step: How Little We Know
The Eighth Step: How Should We Speak to One Another?
The Ninth Step: Concern for Everybody
The Tenth Step: Knowledge
The Eleventh Step: Recognition
The Twelfth Step: Love Your Enemies

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Caturday ~ Mr. Klaus is vanquished

Flora and Ulysses: The Illuminated Adventures ~ by Kate DiCamillo, 2013, children's chapter book, 7/10

It begins, as the best superhero stories do, with a tragic accident that has unexpected consequences.   The squirrel never saw the vacuum cleaner coming, but self-described cynic Flora Belle Buckman, who has read every issue of the comic book Terrible Things Can Happen to You!, is the just the right person to step in and save him.   What neither can predict is that Ulysses (the squirrel) has been born anew, with powers of strength, flight, and misspelled poetry — and that Flora will be changed too, as she discovers the possibility of hope and the promise of a capacious heart.   From #1 New York Times best-selling author Kate DiCamillo comes a laugh-out-loud story filled with eccentric, endearing characters and featuring an exciting new format — a novel interspersed with comic-style graphic sequences and full-page illustrations, all rendered in black-and-white by up-and-coming artist K. G. Campbell.

First, I must say there really is a cat involved.  Second, I admit the cat does not have top billing.  And third, I confess that I'm only mentioning the cat because it's Saturday — I mean, Caturday.  Why?  Because Mr. Klaus, the cat, is one of the bad guys (though not the arch-nemesis).  When Mr. Klaus landed atop the head of Flora's dad (pp. 132-133), Ulysses the superhero squirrel saves the day by vanquishing him (the cat, that is).

The tiny squirrel lifts the roly-poly cat over his head and slings him to the other end of the long hallway.  Anyone laughing out loud would have to be the "young readers" for whom the book is intended.  In other words, not me.

The cat is not all that important to the story, which is about Flora and her parents — and how that squirrel because a superhero.  Oh, and did I mention the newly created superhero squirrel could fly?  I rate the book 7 of 10, a good book.

Beginning ~ with a phone call

The First Phone Call from Heaven ~ by Mitch Albom, 2013, fiction (Michigan)

On  the day the world received its first phone call from heaven, Tess Rafferty was unwrapping a box of tea bags.

This book was a Christnas gift from one of my daughters to Donna, my roommate.  Donna has already finished the novel, and I am now on the third chapter.  All I had intended to do was skim the beginning to see what the book was about, and before I knew it, I was well into the story.

Gilion at Rose City Reader hosts Book Beginnings on Fridays.  Click here for today's Mister Linky.

Monday Mindfulness ~ love and be loved

"The greatest thing you'll ever learn
Is just to love and be loved in return."
— Eden Ahbez, "Nature Boy" (1947 song)

Sunday Salon ~ new baby, quilt, and books

Now I have a photo of Shelby, my newest great-granddaughter, who was born December 13th.  I told you about her last week in my double birthday post.

And her big brother Jaxon, age three, is ready for Christmas.

Raegan, my four-year-old great-granddaughter, was in a children's Christmas program this week.  She's third from the right, the one in pink.  (Click to enlarge any of these photos.)

QUILT

I already got a Christmas gift.  On Wednesday evening, my daughter Sandra made potato soup for us and gave me something very special.  Here I am holding it.

In the second photo, I'm showing the backing with the label Sandra added:

"Coming Full Circle"

Made for my mom, Bonnie Jacobs,

while remembering the quilt she gave to me

at my high school graduation in 1978,

by Sandra H____

Merry Christmas 2013

The quilt I gave her 35 years ago is still on her bed, still being used.

BOOKS

I've completed one book for my reading challenge:  Evolving in Monkey Town: How a Girl Who Knew All the Answers Learned to Ask the Questions is a memoir by Rachel Held Evans (2010).  I rate it 9 of 10, an excellent book.  You can see the thoughts my online book club has had about the book, as we discussed it during November and December.

Currently reading:  Whistling in the Dark: A Doubter's Dictionary by Frederick Buechner (1993).

P.S.

Today is my maternal grandmother's birthday.  Inez Geneva Underwood Reynolds (1880-1943) was born 133 years ago on this day.

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