Today's Featured Writer ~ Jack London

Jack London 

(1876-1916) American writer. Jack London (John Griffith) lived a life that was full of adventure, some of which he dramatized in his most famous works,is known for "Call of the Wild" and "White Fang." His best novel, "The Sea-Wolf," was based on his experiences at sea. 

Gerald Haslam writes, "Jack London has been more widely read and translated than any other American author in history." This book offers selections from many of London's best-known works, many of which depict adventure in all of its various forms.

Life Merging Into Fiction

London was able to write with a fresh and vital perspective because he lived many of the adventures he wrote about in his tales. From an early age, he was able to survive by various legal and illegal means. He was an oyster pirate, paperboy, salmon fisherman, fish patrolman, and sailor. He worked in a canning factory, a jute mill, and a laundromat.

Then, in 1897, London took part in the Klondike gold rush. He would later write that he found himself in the Klondike. He said, "There nobody talks. Everyone thinks. You get your true perceptive. I got mine."

Publishing the Tale

Jack London's first book was published in 1900. In the years to follow, London's stories, novels and other works covered a wide spectrum of human experience. He wrote about the dehumanization of a human being in "The Apostate": "There had never been a time when [Johnny] had not been in an intimate relationship with machines. Machinery had almost been bred into him, and at any rate he had been brought up on it." But, London is able to tap into something far deeper than the surface horrors, injustices and dehumanizations in human nature.

 

He takes us with him on these journeys to discovery, thrilling us with the adventure. His works remain fresh and accessible, because, as Haslam explains, London "helped invent what we think of as modern American prose."

JACK LONDON QUOTATIONS

• "I would rather be ashes than dust! I would rather that my spark should burn out in a brilliant blaze than it should be stifled by dry rot. I would rather be a superb meteor, every atom of me in magnificent glow, than a sleepy and permanent planet. The proper function of man is to live, not to exist. I shall not waste my days in trying to prolong them. I shall use my time."
  - Jack London
  
• "Pictures! Pictures! Pictures! Often, before I learned, did I wonder whence came the multitudes of pictures that thronged my dreams; for they were pictures the like of which I had never seen in real wake-a-day life. They tormented my childhood, making of my dreams a procession of nightmares and a little later convincing me that I was different from my kind, a creature unnatural and accursed."
  - Jack London, Before Adam
  
• "The soft summer wind stirs the redwoods, and Wild-Water ripples sweet cadences over its mossy stones. There are butterflies in the sunshine, and from everywhere arises the drowsy hum of bees. It is so quiet and peaceful, and I sit here, and ponder, and am restless. It is the quiet that makes me restless. It seems unreal. All the world is quiet, but it is the quiet before the storm. I strain my ears, and all my senses, for some betrayal of that impending storm. Oh, that it may not be premature! That it may not be premature!"
  - Jack London, Iron Heel
  
• "The one opened the door with a latch-key and went in, followed by a young fellow who awkwardly removed his cap. He wore rough clothes that smacked of the sea, and he was manifestly out of place in the spacious hall in which he found himself. He did not know what to do with his cap, and was stuffing it into his coat pocket when the other took it from him. The act was done quietly and naturally, and the awkward young fellow appreciated it. 'He understands,' was his thought. 'He'll see me through all right.'"
  - Jack London, Martin Eden
  
• "Buck did not read the newspapers, or he would have known that trouble was brewing, not alone for himself, but for every tidewater dog, strong of muscle and with warm, long hair, from Puget Sound to San Diego. Because men, groping in the Arctic darkness, had found a yellow metal, and because steamship and transportation companies were booming the find, thousands of men were rushing into the Northland. These men wanted dogs, and the dogs they wanted were heavy dogs, with strong muscles by which to toil, and furry coats to protect them from the frost."
  - Jack London, The Call of the Wild
  
• "All my life I have had an awareness of other times and places. I have been aware of other persons in me. Oh, and trust me, so have you, my reader that is to be. Read back into your childhood, and this sense of awareness I speak of will be remembered as an experience of childhood. You were then not fixed, not crystallized. You were plastic, a soul in flux, a consciousness and an identity in the process of forming--ay, of forming and forgetting."
  - Jack London, The Star Rover
  
• "Dark spruce forest frowned on either side the frozen waterway. The trees had been stripped by a recent wind of their white covering of frost, and they seemed to lean toward each other, black and ominous, in the fading light. A vast silence reigned over the land."
  - Jack London, White Fang

Secrets and Mysteries : The Glory and Pleasure of Being a Woman ~ Denise Linn

Secrets and Mysteries: The Glory and Pleasure of Being a Woman by Denise Linn

Secrets and Mysteries will give you a profound understanding of what it means to be a woman. Full of passion, mysticism, and practical information, it will tap in to the source of your power at the depths of your soul. Through her own extraordinary life experience and her knowledge of native cultures round the world, Denise Linn reveals how you can activate ancient wisdom to become a magnificent woman of strength and grace—in other words, how you can become a Glorious Woman!
This unusual and indispensable book will show you:
•the invisible patterns that shape a woman’s life;
•how to nurture and replenish your body and soul;
•how to discover the mysteries of the Goddess;
•how to activate a radiant confidence and self-esteem;
•the pleasure of outrageous orgasms;
•how to awaken you inner warrior woman;
•the art of sacred sexuality;
•how to initiate and celebrate your ecstatic life force; and
•the secrets of a shamaness’s power

Each chapter offers a rich tapestry of information, ritual, story, and meditations: a combination of timeless lore and the majesty of the feminine experience. With a strong voice and powerful images relevant to women of all ages and backgrounds, Denise Linn has compiled a remarkable handbook for any Goddess-in-the-Making.
About the Author
Denise Linn has been called "America's best-kept secret." For the last three and a half decades she has traveled to the far corners of the world speaking to standing-room only audiences of thousands. Her spiritual journey began as a teenager when she had a near-death experience after being shot by an unknown gunman. The revelations she received on the "other side" and her subsequent quest to heal her body from the damage caused by the gunman's bullet, lead Denise to eventually become an internationally acclaimed healer, writer, and lecturer,

Denise has taught seminars in 19 countries and has written 14 books, including the best-selling Sacred Space and the award-winning Sacred Legacies. Her books have been translated into 26 languages, and she has been featured on Oprah, Lifetime, Discovery Channel, BBC TV, NBC and CBS. In addition to being the founder of the International Institute of Soul Coaching, Denise is also a world-acclaimed expert in feng shui and space clearing. She has distilled the information and wisdom she has gained from indigenous cultures around the planet, as well as from her own Native American roots, into her teaching.

Denise lives on the Central Coast of California with her husband David, two dogs, eight chickens, and innumerable frogs.

The Necklace by Cheryl Jarvis

The Necklace: Thirteen Women and the Experiment That Transformed Their Lives by Cheryl Jarvis

The true story of thirteen women who took a risk on an expensive diamond necklace and, in the process, changed not only themselves but a community.

Four years ago, in Ventura, California, Jonell McLain saw a diamond necklace in a local jewelry store display window. The necklace aroused desire first, then a provocative question: Why are personal luxuries so plentiful yet accessible to so few? What if we shared what we desired? Several weeks, dozens of phone calls, and a leap of faith later, Jonell bought the necklace with twelve other women, with the goal of sharing it.

Part charm, part metaphor, part mirror, the necklace weaves in and out of each woman’s life, reflecting her past, defining her present, making promises for her future. Lending sparkle in surprising and unexpected ways, the necklace comes to mean something dramatically different to each of the thirteen women.
With vastly dissimilar histories and lives, the women show us how they transcended their individual personalities and politics to join together in an uncommon journey. What started as a quirky social experiment became something far richer and deeper, as the women transformed a symbol of exclusivity into a symbol of inclusiveness. They discovered that sharing the necklace among themselves was only the beginning; The more they shared with others, the more profound this experience–and experiment–became.

Original, resonant, and beautifully told, this book is an inspiring story about a necklace that became greater than the sum of its links, and about thirteen ordinary women who understood the power of possibility, who touched the lives of a community, and who together created one extraordinary experience.

Featured Writer ~ Denise Levertov

Today's Featured Writer: Denise Levertov ~ 

The poet Denise Levertov, raised in Britain, worked and lived in America through most of her career. Her poetry is notable for its social content, particularly feminism and themes of peace. In her later poems, she turned to religious themes.

Denise Levertov served in the 1960s as poetry editor of The Nation and in 1975-78 as poetry editor for Mother Jones magazine. Denise Levertov taught at Stanford University from 1982-1993.

Quotes by Denise

"Peace as a positive condition of society, not merely as an interim between wars, is something so unknown that it casts no images on the mind's screen."

" Know the ship you sail on. Know its timbers. Deep the fjord waters where you sail, steep the cliffs, deep into the unknown coast goes the winding fjord."

"The poem has a social effect of some kind whether or not the poet wills it to have. It has kinetic force, it sets in motion . . . elements in the reader that would otherwise be stagnant."

"One of the obligations of the writer is to say or sing all that he or she can, to deal with as much of the world as becomes possible to him or her in language."

"In city, in suburb, in forest, no way to stretch out the arms -- so if you would grow, go straight up or deep down."

"But for us the road unfurls itself, we don't stop walking, we know there is far to go."

"You can live for years next door to a big pine tree, honored to have so venerable a neighbor, even when it sheds needles all over your flowers or wakes you, dropping big cones onto your deck at still of night."

"Every day, every day I hear enough to fill a year of nights with wondering."

(About her mother) "She was a pointer-outer. She pointed out clouds, and she pointed out flowers. She started one off looking at things...Very few people really see things unless they've had someone in early life who made them look at things. And name them too. But the looking is primary, the focus."

Procrastination is a Miracle...some thoughts on writing by SARK

Dear Miracle Writer - 

 

All of my 25 procrastinating years with my writing were the perfect way to create my writing dreams that I'm living today. And I believe this is true for you too. 

Mainly because procrastination gives us time. Time to avoid, delay, ruminate, wonder, read, go on long walks. This time was crucial to my development as a writer. And even if you don't procrastinate, whatever has happened to you, has nourished your writing life.

 

I simply wasn't ready to begin living as a writer, and making a living as a writer any sooner. I needed to claim my writing life and myself as a writer AND life living soul. I now know that with the right guidance, I could have claimed it sooner.

Now I've been creating a living, a business and all the books I've ever dreamed of for the past 22 years, I'm here to tell you that procrastination is fun, and writing and publishing is even more fun!

All of my 16 bestselling books have been created with the miracles of procrastination.

Perfectionism is a little more tricky - but I've graduated to part-time perfectionism, which I never believed was possible!

So if you write poetry, non-fiction, fiction, children's books or screenplays, or keep journals and diaries, or any other type of writing, be inspired. Shy or introverted people especially welcome. I specialize also in people who resist, avoid, or claim to be too busy to write, or would rather just write while sleeping but can't figure out how to do it!

 

Happily writing and living,

Susan

aka SARK

p.s. The photograph above was taken by my friend Leslie in a bookstore in Australia. I think they like SARK;-)

The Wisdom of Paulo Coelho ~ A Compilation

 

 

Your Journey

There is one great truth on this planet:
whoever you are, or whatever it is that you do,
when you really want something,
it's because that desire originated in the soul of the universe.
It's your mission on earth.

The Alchemist

Seeking Love

The moment we begin to seek love,
love begins to seek us.
And to save us.

By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept

The Best Teacher

What is a teacher? I'll tell you:
it isn't someone who teaches something,
but someone who inspires the student to give of her best
in order to discover what she already knows.

The Witch of Portobello

Befriending the Heart

The boy and his heart had become friends,
and neither was capable now of betraying the other.

The Alchemist

The Only Thing

Only one thing makes a dream impossible:
the fear of failure.

The Alchemist

This Precious Moment

We are travelers on a cosmic journey, stardust,
swirling and dancing in the eddies and whirlpools of infinity.
Life is eternal.
We have stopped for a moment to encounter each other,
to meet, to love, to share.
This is a precious moment.
It is a little parenthesis in eternity.

The Alchemist

The Secret of Life

The secret of life, though,
is to fall seven times
and to get up eight times.

The Alchemist

The Good Fight

Often, during combat, the warrior of light receives blows that he was not expecting.
And he realizes that, during a war, his enemy is bound to win some of the battles.
When this happens, the warrior of light weeps bitter tears and rests
in order to recover his energies a little.
But he immediately resumes the battle for his dreams.

Manual of the Warrior of Light

What is Intuition?

Intuition is really a sudden immersion
of the soul into the universal current of life,
where the histories of all people are connected,
and we are able to know everything,
because it's all written there.

The Alchemist

The Mixing Bowl by Gunilla Norris excerpted from the book, "Becoming Bread"

The Mixing Bowl by Gunilla Norris

The Mixing Bowl by Gunilla Norris
excerpted from the book, "Becoming Bread"

Here on the table
is the mixing bowl.
Brown and ordinary,
turned on the potters wheel,
it has an umber rim
and glazed cinnamon-speckled sides.

Its task is to be open,
a simple space.
This bowl is clay, earth, matter.
Particular.
We are like it.
Clay, earth, matter.
Particular and vast when we are empty...

When life can fill us
to the rim, brimming.

We are the mixing place,
where terror and hate,
where love and hope,
the way we move,
our smiles and uncertainties,
our courage and stupidities
are all embraced.

We are the body bowl...
the forming space,
the home of possiblity.