I live in a part of Toronto where the ratio of crack houses to young couples renovating their first home is shifting slowly in favor of our investment. My partner Colin was at a “meet the neighbors” pot luck a while ago, and he introduced himself to a new addition to our street, a seemingly handy guy doing some great work to the front of his house. The new guy tried to figure out which house was ours, based on Colin’s description. After a few wrong guesses, his eyes widened and he said:
“Oh! Are you guys the ones right next to that crazy Halloween house?”
Colin smiled. “Nope, that’s us. We are the crazy Halloween house.”
This book review was sent in by Heidi, one of our readers. She’s been recommending it to all her girlfriends and thinks you might enjoy it too. Thank you for sharing Heidi!
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I just wanted to drop a line to recommend the book that I’m currently obsessed with. It’s called 9 Secrets to Bedroom Bliss: Exploring Sexual Archetypes to Reveal Your Lover’s Passions and Discover What Turns You On by Jim Herriot, though the title is a bit deceiving. The title makes it sound like this is a book for someone who isn’t satisfied in the bedroom, but it’s really about finding out what kind of archetype you most relate to in bed, which archetype your partner most relates to and how to explore other types and enjoy multi-dimensional sex. (If you’re not familiar with archetypes, an archetype is like a basic character that exists for all of humanity, and you can chose to play one for variety, but everyone has one that is their “home” archetype and feels most comfortable too.)
A man’s identity should be based on much more than what he’s paid to do 9-5. For a stay-at-home dad/ writer/gardener, the issue is even more poignant.
“So, what do you do?” It’s the standard male greeting, the first attempt to figure out who a man is, the human equivalent to a dog’s bum smelling dance. But who says job equals identity?
I’ve progressed from “Busboy” to “Social Worker” to “Director of Strategic Partnerships”, and each time glowed a little more, felt a little more worthy with the answer. People at those parties could tell right away that I was accomplished, Doing something Big, validated by some organization willing to give me that title and pay me for it. But was I becoming a better person?
Mead believes that, “attractive ideas cannot be stopped. If those ideas are based on truth and expanding awareness, they’ll snowball.” So of course, we just had to ask him…
How do you keep “illuminating” yourself?
I think it’s just the constant pursuit of truth and expansion. Trying to push the limits of life. Trying to see things from different angles. That’s what I live for. I regularly seek out new perspectives and contexts. Sometimes it’s hard to keep a balance between personal growth and contentment. I try to keep rooted in my permanent values, like authenticity, clarity and balance. That helps.
When I first started wandering from creative blog to creative blog, I was struck by how often SARK’s books were recommended. Eventually I bought one and at first I worried that, since they were so heavily illustrated and written in coloured inks, they would be more style than substance, but I couldn’t have been more wrong.
The self-named Susan Ariel Rainbow Kennedy (aka SARK) has written and illustrated fifteen books, including Succulent Wild Woman, Eat Mangoes Naked and A Creative Companion. Her latest, Juicy Pens, Thirsty Paper is subtitled “Gifting the world with your words and stories and creating the time and energy to actually do it.”
As glorious to look at as SARK’s other books, it’s about being a writer and the power of stories. In SARK’s own words, the book is for “Word adventurers. Story gulpers. People who love books. And anybody who feels drawn to express, play and explore life.” It’s about finding the time to write and getting the support of others (including other writers). It’s about sharing what’s in your heart and getting it down on paper. Like all of SARK’s books, it’s predominantly about being kind to yourself.
A man’s identity should be based on much more than what he’s paid to do 9-5. For a stay-at-home dad/ writer/gardener, the issue is even more poignant.
Mead believes that, “attractive ideas cannot be stopped. If those ideas are based on truth and expanding awareness, they’ll snowball.” So of course, we just had to ask him…
When I first started wandering from creative blog to creative blog, I was struck by how often 
