Wherein I review 'I've Been Thinking... Reflections, Prayers, and Meditations for a Meaningful Life'

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I've long been a fan of—and subscriber to—Maria Shriver's The Sunday Paper. In her weekly e-newsletter, Shriver shares empowering, encouraging, inspirational thoughts and information on people making a positive difference in our culture, our world.

Shriver opens each newsletter with an engaging personal message  titled "I've been thinking...," on a range of topics relevant to world events and concerns. She follows up with powerful articles and tidbits by and about various "Architects of Change," as she calls the passionate "changemakers moving humanity forward." 

The Sunday Paper never fails to open my eyes and heart to the positive possibilities in our world today despite the doom, gloom, negativity, and nastiness proliferating online and off.

So when I was offered the opportunity to review I've Been Thinking... Reflections, Prayers, and Meditations for a Meaningful Life, Shriver's most recent book, inspired by the messages she writes and shares in The Sunday Paper, I naturally responded, "Heck, yeah!"

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Grandmas can change the world!

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Grandmas can change the world!

How grandmas can change the world!

Maria Shriver publishes a weekly newsletter, The Sunday Paper, that's chock-full of positive information and inspiration. I was once a diehard reader of the print Sunday local newspaper but nowadays The Sunday Paper is the one and only newspaper I peruse, nay, devour on Sundays. 

In yesterday's The Sunday Paper was a quote that especially resonated with me, as I think it...

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A 'Disquiet Time' gem

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A 'Disquiet Time' gem

I am a sucker for a good quote, as this post and this post attest. I recently checked out from the library Disquiet Time: Rants and Reflections on the Good Book by the Skeptical, the Faithful, and a few Scoundrels, edited by Jennifer Grant and Cathleen Falsani, and while reading Tracey Bianchi's touching (and truth-filled) essay "One Disgusting Mess," the following passage jumped right off the page and into my heart:

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5 right moves I made (more often but not always) in 2017

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5 right moves I made (more often but not always) in 2017

Like many people, in the waning days of 2017 and the first fresh few of 2018, I pondered the past twelve months in consideration of what I could do to improve the next twelve.

And, like most people, the negative events and actions that I personally experienced or had a hand in marking upon my days stood out most. My failures, foibles, moments of weakness, madness, self-interest, and paralyzing procrastination. Positive considerations were quickly, nearly completely, canceled out by the negative.

Now, being a Negative Nancy isn't my overall nature, yet it is human nature to recall...

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Saturday movie review: Big Sonia

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Saturday movie review: Big Sonia

What the world needs now is love. And tolerance and acceptance and BIG SONIA — both the film as well as Sonia Warshawski on whom the film is based.

Ninety-one-year-old Sonia Warshawski is a Holocaust survivor. She was an eye-witness to genocide, the victim of horrors unknown to all but those who lived and died in concentration camps, one who miraculously made it through six years of hell to the unforgettable day of liberation by allied forces.

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