Birthdays and a Book Giveaway!

This year, Andie needs 10 fingers and a toe!

In all the excitement around my daughter’s 11th birthday, I overlooked another birthday of sorts!

My Blog!!

I can hardly believe it, but I’ve been at it for 1 year now! My 1st entry announcing Andie’s 10th b’day!

Happy Birthday Blog!

And thank you, thank you, thank you wonderful readers!

I ventured into this world afraid and uncertain.  But as you shared your own personal stories, memories, advice and thoughtful comments, I quickly discovered the pure joy of sharing my weekly musings with an online community!

My 1st entry announcing Andie’s 10th b’day!

I’ve decided as a thank you celebration to try something I’ve never done before.

Drum roll, please…

A Book Give Away!

No, not mine.  That is still in process with an update coming soon.

Instead, I’m looking to give away a book that had a huge impact on my life.  It’s a book about worthiness and boundries and love and shame and so much more!  It’s called The Gifts of Imperfection:  Let Go of Who You Think You’re Supposed to Be and Embrace Who You Are.  The author, Brene Brown (please put a little thingy over the last e in Brene because my computer won’t), calls it a guide to wholehearted living.
I can’t say enough about this book.  Nearly every line of my copy is underlined and almost every corner of every page is turned down!

I wanted everyone in my family to read it and ordered 5 copies.  When the rather large box arrived, I was a bit surprised.  When I opened the cardboard box and found 12 copies, I was even more surprised.  When my husband and daughter theorized that I must have started with one, decided to order 2, and accidentally created 12, I just nodded.  Mentioning that I’d actually ordered 5 would have simply confused the situation, right?

Well, if you’ve been reading my posts for a while, you know I’m a big believer in the guidance of higher powers. So rather than try to make meaning out of this considerable order, I figured I’m supposed to give the book to 12 people who need it!  So far, I’ve come across 11.

Are you the 12th?

I’ll post a few of my favorite passages from the book and let you decide!

If so, simply leave a comment and tell me what you liked, how it moved you or even the title of a book you’d like to recommend!

I will draw a name at random after midnight on Saturday, December 10th, using the tool at www.random.org and notify the winner by email.

Passages from The Gifts of Imperfection:

Brene opens the book with the following:  “Owning our story and loving ourselves through that process is the bravest thing that we will ever do.”

In regard to shame, she says, shame is “the fear of being unlovable,” and “the birthplace of perfectionism.” She also writes that “shame hates it when we reach out and tell our story.”

What I love so much about the book is how Brene shares her own personal stories.

“I always been prone to worry and anxiety, but after I became a mother, negotiating joy, gratitude, and scarcity felt like a full-time job.  For years, my fear of something terrible happening to my children actually prevented me from fully embracing joy and gratitude.  Every time I came too close to softening into sheer joyfulness about my children and how much I love them, I’d picture something terrible happening: I’d picture losing everything in a flash.”  Me, too! I’d written next to that passage.

She wrote this on courage.  “Courage is telling our story, not being immune to criticism.  Staying vulnerable is a risk we have to take if we want to experience connection.”

It was so hard to pick just a few out of all the wonderful passages, but here’s one more.

“Joy is thorny and sharp as any of the dark emotions.  To love someone fiercely, to believe in something with your whole heart, to celebrate a fleeting moment in time, to fully engage in a life that doesn’t come with guarantees – these are risks that involve vulnerability and often pain.”

Check out her Ted Talk

What do you think?  I can’t wait to hear!