Real Life: The Journey from Isolation to Openness and Freedom by Sharon Salzberg
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
“Life is amazing. And then it’s awful. And then it’s amazing again. And in between the amazing and awful, it’s ordinary and mundane and routine. Breathe in the amazing, hold on through the awful, and relax and exhale during the ordinary. That’s just living heartbreaking, soul-healing, amazing, awful, ordinary life.”
The quote above personifies why I love Sharon Salzberg. She does not try to create an alternate reality of what life is. She doesn’t feel like someone that’s so far away from my life that I couldn’t connect to her words. She reminds us that we get to choose how things affect us and we get to choose our spaciousness and the way we look at life. We get to choose to be full of love.
“This is what I’m calling Real Life. Real Life is about what happens when we fully engage with our everyday lives, whatever shape our lives take, whatever challenges and obstacles that life may bring.”
Reading Salzberg reminds me that I can be more than I am and that I am perfect just the way I am. It reminds me that I can grow and change and be expansive. She reminds me of the power of love, the power of kindness and of being good-hearted.
“Joy is exactly what’s happening, minus our opinion of it. . . . This is freedom. Love is the ultimate expression of joy and freedom. Joy, freedom, and love could be considered synonyms for each other, and for belonging.”
Joy is my word for 2022 and as I look to 2023 and think about how to be more expansive and more open and free, I know Salzberg’s words will guide me as they always do. I loved every moment I spent with this book and I expect I will read it again and again.
with gratitude to netgalley and Flatiron Books for the advanced copy in exchange for an honest review
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