37 Days

December 7
Best of 09 Challenge. Blog Find. What is that gem of a blog find that you can't believe you didn't know about until this year?

This summer I was singing in New Hampshire and I was staying in Vermont on a horse farm near Woodstock. I went into a local bookstore one hot afternoon and was browsing through all the books. This bookstore was very eclectic in it's selection of books on display. You weren't likely to find the latest Dan Brown sitting in plain view but rather more unique and less box-office friendly titles. My favorite number is 37 and as I was perusing the aisles I came across a book entitled, Life is a Verb: 37 Days to Wake Up, Be Mindful, and Live Intentionally. I had to buy it for the title alone!

This book was one of those you buy hoping you will stretch it out to last at least a week but every extra moment you find yourself tearing through more of it. Each night I would plan to read only a chapter and then find myself four to five essays longer than planned. It's just that good. The author Patti Digh (pronounced like sigh)is a sensational writer with depth, heart, and a capacity to put into words what I feel so often can't be done. She is music. Her compassion and insight just tore at my heart. So, I googled her and found that she had a blog. Her blog is called 37 Days and it is just as captivating. Every day she has something thought provoking and profound to offer. Certain days there may be just a picture or a piece of "Found Art" by her daughter. Other days she leaves a poem. Thursday's are loads of fun because she offers a link to interesting articles or stories followed by a link to the world's sexiest man, Johnny Depp. She has a beautiful sense of humor and a deep sense of what is real and right in the world. I feel as if I know this woman. I wrote her to tell her how much I appreciated her work and she immediately wrote back. She was en route to Chicago and was looking at my website and commented that she hoped to get to hear me sing some time. I was so joyous that she wrote me back and I do feel, as she has said in one of her essays, that she hopes to meet everyone of her readers. Go to the link below and read some of her blog entries by clicking on blog. Some of my favorites are, Carry a Small Grape, See the Angel Beside You, and Stay in School. Study Hard. Set Goals for Yourself.

Patti makes sense to me. She makes me feel good and I enjoy reading her blog daily. Here is a Patti quote that I love. Enjoy!

"There is a power in the transformation that starts taking place when power surges heat us up from the inside out. There is a power in the knowledge that we have nothing to prove, not one damn thing. There is power in knowing that we have every single thing we need, that we need nothing else, that we are fully human and gorgeously odd and contradictory and beautiful just as we are. That we are hot in the very deepest, richest, metaphorically resonant use of that term. That we are not broken. That we don’t need to be fixed." --Patti Digh

Life is a Verb: 37 Days to Wake Up, Be Mindful, and Live Intentionally